Down Another Rabbit Hole
by leigh.deeA
Summary: This story begins after Chapter 74. Kaho discovers a picture of a boy who looks exactly like Len in her grandmother's attic. Inside you'll find: time travel, thoughts on fate and introspection on Kaho's part. Give it a try? Then click away...
1. Prologue

This story is inspired by the La Corda manga, particulary Chapter 74 and mentions some of the music from the anime as well as some new pieces. The prologue is my take on Kaho and Len's sudden but quiet fall out which happens in 74. Chapter one of this story continues a day after that.

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**Prologue**

He had appeared out of nowhere. She was motionless and dumbfounded, and almost believed that he had heard her thoughts. He was, she admitted, above her. He was everything that she couldn't reach. That these were her thoughts after months of not seeing him was depressing.

"I haven't seen you in a long time," said Len.

She almost wished he hadn't found her. She was caught in her feelings and wasn't prepared to talk to anyone about them, especially not to him. But she had to make conversation because saying nothing would make them both uncomfortable. She should talk about his accomplishments, it shouldn't be about her standing, and flattery was her only safe option since she couldn't show what she really felt.

"You've been really active, Tsukimori-kun," she said with the best smile she could offer. "You've been in TV shows and magazines and everyone in school's talking about you. I went to your recent performance and wow, the concert hall was so big..."

She probably shouldn't have said that last part. But she had to fill in the silence. Or ignore the growing uneasiness inside her by rambling.

He was surprised. "You went to listen? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Right, I went," she admitted. She should have tried harder but there was a heavy load inside that she wanted to release. And she couldn't hold it down.

"I went," she said again, "and I felt the difference between the standard of your music and mine," –she swallowed—"I feel like the difference between us is..."

It was too far. He was too good. She can't compare and shouldn't even try. It was pointless.

"Even though I said that I would keep working hard here," she began without thinking, "maybe what I'm doing is just wasting time and effort."

It was a comment she would have shrugged off but his response had been immediate and the complete opposite.

"What are you saying?" he said calmly. "Is this what you wanted to say to me?"

She could feel his anger simmer. She could feel the ice in his voice. _Hot and cold_. It was like that. She hadn't looked in his direction when she'd said the words and after his reaction she didn't know if it would be worse to look or worse to turn away.

"What you said...do you think you can just take it back?"

Suddenly every other declaration, every other promise she'd made echoed in her mind: _I won't lose to you! I'm going to keep working hard here! _

_I'll chase after him...I always will..._

They sounded like poison now that she'd mixed her doubt and insecurities.

"Is that it Hino?"

He waited. She didn't answer. How was she supposed to?

"_You made me very disappointed_."

It sounded final. It was as if there was nothing she could do to redeem herself. They both had let go. She'd given up and it felt like he'd done the same. He'd given up on her.

"_No_," she thought. "_No. Don't let go..._"

But it had happened. He walked away and she didn't know what to do.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Hino Kahoko was made to reprise her old role. In solitude, in the attic of her grandmother's home, she set out to sort the forgotten from the unforgettable past. She dusted cobweb covered boxes and blew puffs of air on old photo albums, pretending she controlled a desert wind that uncovered treasures hidden under the weight of sand. Occasionally, she had to gently swat a spider away from her face.

After her stint as a cleaner, she planned to go to the park to watch the ships. It was a habit and was on her list of things to do—an altered version, which didn't include her schedule for practicing outdoors. She'd watch ships loll about because she was 'in between practice' and she'd only occasionally think that she was procrastinating. She was taking a short break.

"I'm not running from this," she said aloud.

She denied that she was working her way to a repeat performance of something she'd done during the interval of the second and third selections—when unworthy and irresponsible were stubborn words that made regular rounds in her head and light hearted conversation and after school outings with her friends were distractions she'd used to cover up the tangled emotions inside her. She balled her hands into fists as though she were crumpling the intrusive memories and the words they inspired in her hands. She'd almost quit then but she couldn't be that same person now. She couldn't skid into the role of someone lost and in limbo.

_Not again and not ever..._

She sighed. Cleaning her grandmother's attic was symbolic for organising her own thoughts and feelings. She could sweep away unwanted thoughts and dust bunnies and feel awful only later, when he'd be back in her proximity.

_Tsukimori Len_

She bit her lip as she remembered his words from before the third selection, his '_I can't accept you as a fellow musician_' had hurt her, amplified her guilt, and made it tangible. If she'd ploughed through those dense emotions sooner, she would have focused on his question: _Was she really serious about music_? But it hadn't happened before she'd said she would quit and 'The Lost' had become a fitting theme for the third selection.

She had been different when she decided to keep the violin. She couldn't give it back to Lili—there was a sense of belonging, of being where she was meant to be, and she made promises to herself and to Tsukimori too because of that feeling. Her emotions led her to commit to music but she hadn't understood that the decision to continue playing should override her feelings if she meant to honor her commitment.

Maybe when she'd first spoken to Tsukimori about playing the violin, when he'd said that 'like' or 'dislike' didn't matter to him and implied that those emotions didn't contribute to or influence his music, he'd been thinking that feelings wouldn't sway him when it came to his commitment to music and the violin. Even if his approach had implied that winning meant everything (which was probably why he placed first regularly), she knew that he wouldn't stop playing if the prize hadn't been won. She imagined he'd be disappointed in himself if he'd let a loss affect him. He'd said before that controlling nerves was a skill and she supposed that he controlled his other emotions just as skilfully.

Like him, she made a choice to move forward with the violin and she had to hang on to it and renew her decision many times to keep going. She realized that _he_ had expected that from her. That she felt bad because she was discouraged shouldn't lead her to change her course. She'd been happy because of what she already accomplished but good feelings shouldn't be more important than the decision to continue. Otherwise, she'd be limited by them and once she'd start feeling differently, she'd be tempted to turn her back on music. And, she suspected, having fun for the moment wasn't the same as the satisfaction of truly pursuing the violin. The ups and the downs were part of it and she risked losing a lot of experiences by not being disciplined. It was a difficult lesson to learn.

Yesterday, she'd caught on that it was a lesson she was still learning after she'd slipped on her words and reprised the role of someone guilty and ashamed. Yesterday, she may have broken a promise, so Len Tsukimori seemed to have repeated a performance too.

He'd always play a strict arbitrator of dedication.

"_You made me very disappointed," he had said._

She swiped at her tears and wondered why she was crying when she already re-affirmed her commitment. She hadn't cried yesterday even when she felt so beneath everyone the moment he'd spoken those words. He'd walked out on her too and confused the others, leaving her to receive all their questioning looks.

A fresh round of tears stung her eyes as she collected more photo albums. Like her thoughts and feelings, the albums were stacked precariously on top of each other. Waiting to topple over...

And they did topple. The photo albums, that is, and she sat on her haunches to pick up some loose photos. She wondered if that was what she wanted to do—send some debris flying in his direction to see if he'd be compelled to act. To shout at her (but he never did shout, not even when he was angry) or react to her or do something for her behalf. She wanted to confirm if he'd ignore her and if she was determined enough to make him realize that he should do the opposite and take responsibility.

She didn't want him to leave her alone. He played a part hadn't he? She could probably place some of the blame on his shoulders. He put her in her present situation. He didn't understand. Hadn't he helped make her over?

It sounded as if she had been planning a full on attack and she didn't like it. But she realized, as an aside, that studying music had helped her improve how she expressed her thoughts.

She wanted to know if she could still get his attention, especially since too much of hers was focused on him. _The proof?_ She was looking at his face in an old photograph in her grandmother's attic. An old sepia photograph that could have been taken in the 1950s.

The photo had been a candid one. Its subject looked as if he had been about to turn his head towards the camera and was slightly surprised when the picture was taken so suddenly. He was wearing a suit and he looked like Tsukimori's identical twin. Though the photo couldn't show the true color of his hair and eyes, she had decided on the colors herself. Was he related to the Tsukimori family? Whoever he was, he was such a perfect copy of her schoolmate that she thought about keeping the photo. Something about the slightly surprised look on the boy's face endeared him to her. She flipped the photo. There was no name, only a date and place.

_Seisou. 1958._

_So this was taken at the school_. She ran a fingertip over the edges of the photograph and tried to imagine Seisou in the 1950s.

_They'd already built the Gen Ed building, right?_

She stared at the boy in the picture again, wondering what he could have been thinking at the time the photo had been taken.

_Unless he hadn't formed a thought because the photographer was too quick..._

_1958, huh?_

_I wonder..._

It was 11:09 am and she heard a noise like a crackle, as though the energy around her had changed, and before she could react to the light that shone from the photograph, Hino Kahoko had disappeared.

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_Manga references_:

_Chapter 5: In this chapter, Kaho tells Len that he must really like the violin because he practices everyday and takes care of himself too so he could continue playing, and he replies that 'like'/ 'love' or 'dislike'/'hate' are worthless emotions. She then asks why he plays because, naturally, he should love it. He answers that it's none of her business._

_There's a different point of view on 'doing something because you like it' and its inverse too in this chapter and it has to do with commitment. In the manga, Len does admit to himself that music and the violin are both important to him (Chapter 43; he relates both to the theme of the 4__th__ selection, which is 'Priceless'/'Irreplaceable'). He's just not a touchy-feely kind of guy._

_Chapter 8: Kaho asks Len if he ever gets nervous, Len replies: "Controlling your nerves is just another skill."_


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Picture still in hand, Kaho crawled out of the bush where she was deposited. She shrugged off the leaves on her shoulder and took in her new surroundings. She was no longer in her grandmother's attic but in Seisou's courtyard. Since it was a weekend, only the athletes and _Oke Club_ members would be in school but she'd have to be looking to find them because she was alone and the courtyard was deserted.

She shook her head. After Lili and the magic violin, she had to believe that she attracted the magical. If the concours was _Alice In Wonderland_, she went down another rabbit hole...

_Oh well_, she sighed. Her grandmother's house wasn't far from Seisou. She looked at the photo in her hand and thought about using it for when she was late for school. She just had to figure out how it worked. She smiled at "Tsukimori" and said, "It's a nice day, don't you think?"

Lili's golden statue shone in the sunlight and she walked to it as if to meet him. She was suddenly nostalgic as she placed a hand on Lili's pedestal.

"It's the school, right Lili? You made it magic."

"What are you doing?" asked a curious female voice behind her.

"Urm, ah, nothing?" _No, no coherent thoughts from this side, Kahoko_.

She quickly pocketed "Tsukimori's picture" and extended her hand to try to save face by introducing herself to her new companion—a girl who wore a uniform that she hadn't seen in the district.

"Hello, I'm Hino Kahoko, nice to meet you."

The girl shook Kaho's hand. Her eyes were her most noticeable feature: they were large and brown with long lashes. She had straight bangs and her caramel-colored hair fell in soft curls.

"I'm Ruriko Ichida," she said. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, why aren't you in uniform?"

Kaho cleared her throat. _Isn't it a weekend?_

She tipped her head to the side and studied Ruriko's clothes. She wore a midnight blueskirt that was below the knee. The white blouse also had a blue accent. She had a red neckerchief. _Whose uniform is she talking about? _Then she spotted it...Seisou's Logo was embroidered on her collar.

Kaho held on to Ruriko's shoulders. It was the picture. She was sure she'd been transported to Seisou circa 1958.

"Are you ok, Hino-san?" Ruriko asked.

She was going to fall over but she steadied herself and resisted the urge to ask the date. The Gen Ed building looked like it was undergoing renovations..._or maybe it's still being built_. She scanned Lili's statue, then Ruriko's uniform, the Music school building, and Gen Ed.

Panicking, she ran to Gen Ed and peered inside the windows. There were no chairs, no other items that indicated the building was presently in use. It was empty.

Ruriko had followed her. "What's wrong Hino-san?"

_I'm from the future_. She heard the words in her head.

"Will you feel better if you sit down?"

Kaho squatted and hugged her knees. A shiny red Cadillac sped by the school's front gate.

_A vintage car..._

Ruriko had another suggestion, "You can sit in the auditorium and watch the concours and maybe it'll help calm you down. I still have to change for it too, so..." she trailed off. "I wanted to take a walk before the first selection starts but," she paused again. "I think we should head back."

Kaho's ears perked up at the words _concours _and _first selection_. "Concours," Kaho repeated slowly.

"You're a participant in the concours!"

Ruriko nodded nervously, surprised by Kaho's sudden exuberance.

_Lili. I'll find Lili!_

"I'm ok," Kaho said when Ruriko looked concerned. The solution to her problem was clear, so she got up and grabbed Ruriko's hands. "What day is it?"

"Wednesday," Ruriko answered.

She'd been transported to another day of the week. It was obvious since the school was having the first selection, which should be scheduled on a school day.

"Am I right?" Kaho asked. "Is it 1958?"

"Um, yes," Ruriko said.

If the question struck Ruriko as odd, Kaho had missed the telling look. She was comparing the Seisou she knew with the Seisou of the past: the auditorium's brown marble floor, the dark wainscoting of entrance hall, and the high ceiling of the 1950s had been preserved for its students—students like her who belonged in the future. It was surreal. Seisou was an old school after all and walking in the auditorium in 1958 made her feel as though she were truly a part of the school's history.

"What instrument do you play, Ruriko-san?" she asked when they were in the dressing room.

Ruriko was brushing her hair in front of the vanity, "I play piano. I'm not the best though."

Kaho could relate. When Ruriko dipped her head, Kaho placed a hand on her shoulder and tried to reassure her, "I can help you with your make up if you like. Maybe the inside can borrow a little confidence from the outside. Sometimes, you feel the way you look."

She smiled at their reflections in the mirror. The chance to listen to a concours from 1958 had its good points, right?

_It's even better to get to play..._

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There were five participants: a pianist (Ruriko), a cellist, one violinist, and two others with wind instruments, a flute and an oboe respectively. She tapped her finger on the list of names. Only Ruriko's name was familiar but she would match the faces with the correct names once she was seated with the audience. She'd pick a chair near the back just in case there was a problem with not being in the prescribed uniform.

Her plan to find Lili was beginning to take shape. It was probably a good idea to look for him while the performances were ongoing since there was a good chance he would be lurking somewhere near the person he'd picked to join the concours.

_Hmm...which one is it I wonder_, she thought as she surveyed the list a second time. She was backstage but apart from Ruriko, she hadn't spotted the other contestants.

_Which one among the contestants had Lili pulled into the competition? _

_It couldn't be Ruriko, could it?_

She realized then that none of the participants would be Gen Ed and inwardly booed herself for thinking that the contestant Lili had picked would have the same circumstances she had. _Really Kaho...why did you think of that?_

A loud crash interrupted her thoughts. Taking a peek before she rounded a corner, she saw a male student crawl out of a broom closet.

"Get away! Get away!" he shouted, backing into the nearest wall. Kaho hid in her corner and watched him. There was a look of terror on the poor—she noted a red cravat—music sophomore's face. Then a glowing ball of light drifted from the closet towards the now paralyzed young man.

Lili harrumphed and crossed his tiny arms against his blue clad chest. "I'm not a demon, a ghoul, or a goblin. I'm a _fata_! A _fata_!" He sounded indignant and insulted, much like he was when Kaho first met him. "I'm the fairy of this school and I said you're going to be a participant in the concours."

The frightened boy tried to reason with him. "But the first selection is already underway and I wasn't selected beforehand." 

Lili spun in the air and flew close to the boy's face. Kaho thought that wasn't a good idea.

"But you can see me," Lili said. "So..."

She was right. It wasn't a good idea for Lili to move in too close. Lili was—because the move resembled more of a backhand than a swat—backhanded. He landed on the floor.

_Oh poor Lili_. But this thought was quickly followed with a frown. _Ok, Lili, what's up with that? You made me think I was only one who ran away._

She came out of her hiding place and watched as Lili's ball of light chased after the young man through the exit.

She meant to follow them but before her feet could carry out her mind's orders, she was pulled into another nearby closet. It was dark and she tried to inhale properly to calm herself as the hand that grabbed her released its grip on her slender arm. A light bulb turned on and swung like a pendulum in front of her.

When she spoke her name, she recognized his voice immediately. She waited for the light to fix a steady beam on his face. When the bulb stopped swaying, she saw the boy from the photo in her pocket. He was standing in front of her with one arm on his waist.

It was him. It had to be him but she stepped forward to get a better look.

"Tsukimori-kun," she said, not believing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

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_Regarding Seisou's uniform: From what I understand, if you started out with a red cravat or red tie, you'd wear the same color cravat/tie for the next two years. In Hihara's flashback in the anime, his cravat, and Yunoki's too, was teal when he was in first year, which is the same color he should wear (because I don't think we've ever seen him wearing it as a third year) now that he's a senior. In this fic, I made Kaho assume that Ruriko and Jun are second years because they're in red neckerchiefs._


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Tsukimori-kun? Is it really you?" she asked. She stopped herself from touching his face and took in each feature with her eyes instead.

He sighed and it seemed that this simple gesture would be enough to call the guilt she buried and make it rise to the surface. She was sure it would end up a catch in her throat so she waited for him to break the silence. She set her eyes on the floor.

"I'm sorry Hino," he said gently and without preamble. "I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings."

He had on a contrite look and he had apologized for hurting her but she couldn't recognize the reason for his apology. _What did he say? He's sorry he hadn't told me sooner?_

"We have to go back," he said. "I have to go abroad and you can't miss your competition."

"What?" she asked, trying to focus on his face and make sense of his words. The light from the dim bulb did little to improve the darkness and lent only an eerie atmosphere to the enclosed space. That aside, Len Tsukimori seemed confused. Or had she heard wrong?

"Your flight was..."

_Hasn't he already gone abroad? Isn't he supposed to be visiting now?  
><em>

He creased his brow, "It's supposed to be today. Or in the future, as the case may be. The same is true about your competition. Are you all right Hino?"

The room was getting smaller, she thought. She swallowed and placed a hand on her forehead. He was real... and yet...

They weren't from the same timeline. They were both from the future, yes. But in Len's future, he'd just told her that he was leaving sooner than expected. That night _she_ had been the one upset at _him_.

She opened her mouth and attempted to speak. No, she had nothing to say that he needed to hear. He wasn't angry at her. And she couldn't help it—she threw her arms around his waist and hugged him.

_He isn't angry at me. He isn't disappointed._

He rested his chin on her head and placed his hands on her shoulders as though to comfort her.

"It'll be ok, we'll find a way to get back," he said.

Yes, they were going to be ok. She knew exactly what needed to be done.

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"How did you get here?" she asked as they took their places beside each other on a bench overlooking the school lake.

When he didn't answer immediately, she followed his gaze to the lake. The bridge where Ousaki-senpai had played _Debussy's Beau Soir_ hadn't been built; it was a detail that belonged in the future though the lake wasn't less beautiful without it. Seisou had a beautiful campus, she always thought so.

"This is the reason," he said finally, showing her a photo of two teenagers under a banner that read _1958 Jazz Festival_. Her eyes widened when she recognized Ruriko's face.

"Oh! I've met her," Kaho said, moving closer to get a better look. "She's a participant in the concours."

"That's my grandmother," Len informed her. "Beside her is my grandfather."

_Oh_. She tilted her head to the side. It took a few seconds to place his face without the look of terror she had seen earlier but she knew Len's grandfather was the same boy that Lili had, _hmm_, accosted.

"Look at the background Hino," Len said, interrupting her thoughts. "I think you'll recognize another face."

She did as he'd asked and her jaw dropped. It was a profile but she couldn't mistake the person for anyone else.

"That's me," she said, awestruck. "But how did I..."

"How did you get here, Hino?" Len said, completing her sentence for her. A notch appeared between his brows. "I don't know how you ended up in this picture but when I found it, I saw your face immediately. I saw it and then all of a sudden, here I am, in the past," he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Her hand withdrew the photo in her jacket pocket. "Is this you?" she asked.

He took the photo from her and sighed. "This is me," he confirmed. "It was taken at about the time I arrived. Before I was transported to this place, I was in my grandmother's office looking for a letter opener she'd asked me to find. I found the picture I showed you and saw your face in the photo. Before I could blink, I was already here, on the bench where you and I are sitting on." He paused, "Where did you get this photo of me?" 

She had landed in the bushes, while he ended up suddenly sitting on a bench. "My grandmother's attic," she answered. "Why were you wearing a suit?"

"When you visited me that day to give the scarf, I was actually preparing to go out for a late dinner with my grandparents," he explained. He smirked at the expression that had been captured on the photograph. "Your grandmother must have been the girl from the press club. She was the first person I saw and she instantly snapped a photo with her camera."

It was a bit late, she admitted with some embarrassment, when she'd visited his house that memorable night. Something, a voice or a feeling, insisted that she give him the gift she'd bought for him. Her intuition had been right because if she'd waited another day, he would have already been gone.

She never thought she would actually get an explanation for the mysterious photo from her grandmother's attic. "How long have you been here?" she asked.

"I've been here two weeks," he replied after a pause.

"What! Two weeks? How did you survive?"

"It pays to know your family tree. I convinced my grandfather that I was his distant cousin. He's living alone for the moment so until his parents come back, I have a place to stay. I get free food and lodging."

"What do you do if you need money? I mean, he can't support you, can he? What about clothes?"

"I bought these actually," Len said about the white buttondown and dark blue pants he was wearing. "Money I get from tutoring jobs. There's a local piano teacher who hired me part time so she could add more instruments to her after school course. I teach grade school students."

So he'd been supporting himself, Kaho thought. "That's amazing. How did you get hired? I mean, we're only in high school."

"I played _Polonaise Brillante_ for her. She said she enjoyed it and hired me immediately."

She noticed he never said words like 'I was so good' or 'They were so impressed'. Sometimes it amazed her how he could be so humble.

This made her smile but this smile faded when she realized that she too had the board and lodging issue to worry about. _And clothes...and money..._

"You say you've been here two weeks?"

"Yes."

"You've been here that long?"

"Yes."

"What about me," she said quietly. Where would she go? Had their parents' house already been built in the 1950's? Her grandparents lived in Hokkaido! No, she had to talk to Len's grandfather soon. He'd help with finding Lili and she and Len could return to where they were supposed to be.

"I've been looking for you," he said, drawing her attention away from her predicament. "I wanted to find you. That is, I had to find you. When I wasn't tutoring, I was here in school. I was waiting for you."

Maybe he didn't want to be alone. Maybe he was looking for a companion. But something about the way he'd said the words made her heart beat faster. "Were you sure that I would be here?"

"No. But you were in the photo. I had to find you. It was that or do nothing."

Maybe he'd been helpless. She nodded and acknowledged that they needed each other. At least they would face this mystery together.

He got up from the bench. "Come on," he said. "We should go."

And as though he had read her mind, added, "You're staying with me."

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_Music mentioned in this chapter:_

_Beau Soir by Claude Debussy – Ousaki plays this for Kaho in Episode 12 of the anime. The "lake" actually looks more like a pond...but I decided to go with a lake._

_Polonaise Brillante by Henri Wieniawski – Len plays this piece for the First Selection in the anime. In the manga, the piece he played was Pablo de Sarasate's Zapateado. The following quote was attributed to Sarasate and was his reaction when a critic hailed him as a genius: "A genius! For thirty-seven years I've practiced fourteen hours a day, and now they call me a genius!"_


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Kaho recognized the familiar wide brick building that was the Tsukimori mansion. Shuffling her feet, she waited for Len to give any indication of changing his mind. She stole a glance at him. _No? Not a single word? _

She scanned the entrance of her soon-to-be place of residence and let her eyes fall on the tree branches that extended beyond the wall at the gate and the ivy near her shoulder. The tips of the ivy and the leaves of the trees met coyly at the edge of the rough bricks.

Whatever he had planned, she decided she would go with it. She couldn't imagine the first thing she had to do to stay warm, fed and clothed because she was the stray cat and Len was the beloved heir who was about to bring her home to disapproving parents. She told Len as much, and he gave this reply: "You're not a cat, Hino."

"That's right. I'm a person. What will your grandfather, er, cousin think? I mean, I have reason to be nervous."

"And I have reasons to be calm," he replied evenly. "My grandfather is lenient. He's a bit like Hihara-senpai. I hope the comparison reassures you."

"You mean he would just let you adopt me?"

"I think so."

_I guess I should be thankful that you aren't alike. _

Tsukimori swung the gate open, stepping aside to allow her to pass. "Did you say something Hino?"

"_Nandemonai_," she said with false cheerfulness. Really, had she said the words aloud?

"Whatever happens," Len began, "I won't allow you to sleep in the sidewalk and go through garbage for food. You need to think about your basic needs before any false concerns about propriety that you think other people may have. To be honest, my grandfather is hardly a stranger. He shouldn't be to you, if he isn't to me."

He opened the front door and sensing her confusion, added, "You're the only other person who knows the truth about us. Thus, you're the one closest to me. I'm going to take care of you, ok?"

She knew what he meant but other thoughts from an unnamed place formed a rivalry with the correct explanation for his words. She nodded to hide her blush and entered her new home.

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They skipped the tour of the downstairs living area and the kitchen which Len said was hardly different from when Kaho had returned his uniform. When he led her to the second floor and said she could pick a room, any on the right side of the hall, she didn't know how to respond.

_At least he didn't tell me, 'this is where you'll sleep'. It'll be so wrong to hear him say that._

She chose randomly—first door on the right—and they returned to the kitchen to get food. She had to insist that she carry the tea tray to the sitting room because she didn't want him to look like her butler.

"You have one of those old TV sets," she said, taking the implements of the Tsukimori mansion, circa 1950. This TV was part of a cabinet that also housed vinyl records.

"New you mean," Len corrected.

"There's records too...these are mostly _Enka_ right? My grandmother loved watching the old singers perform on NHK. Oh look it's Elvis," she said as she looked through the collection.

"Hino..."

She detected the warning in his voice. She held up both hands as a sign of surrender then clasped them behind her back. "_Wakata yo_. Don't look as you wish."

"It's not that actually," Len said. "We have to be careful about mentioning things that don't exist in this time period. You know what I mean, right?"

"Yes," she replied, taking her seat in a single white arm chair. She ticked off the "must-not-be-named" items with her fingers. "No CDs, no internet, no Jpop, no Kpop. But references to music that existed prior to the 1950s is ok."

She almost wanted him to smile proudly at her but she could make do with the nod of approval.

"You should also think of name to give yourself," he said.

She frowned. _Do I have to?_ Plus, she was sitting down while he was standing just a little away from her with his arms crossed against his chest. He was not her boss though he was going to be, to some extent, her provider. She blushed beet red.

"Did you use a made up name?" she asked incredulously.

"No. But family members resemble each other and it's not uncommon to be named after a grandfather, uncle..."

And here she interrupted him, "Or distant cousin," she said with a raised eyebrow. "Tsukimori-kun, I don't think I need an alias. I don't think your grandfather will remember me into his old age. And it's not likely that I'll be crossing paths with him in the future."

He cleared his throat. "You might meet him," he said softly.

"What's that?" she asked, noticing the blush that spread across his cheeks. "Oh!"

But she suddenly remembered!

"And, I've already met your grandmother. She knows me as Hino Kahoko."

_There that should put an end to it._

Len uncrossed his arms and sat in the twin arm chair next to hers, "Ok." He was resigned not pleased. "Mind your anachronisms and we won't get caught."

She held out her hand. And he, nearly missing the point, hesitated to shake it.

.

.

Len asked her to rest before they'd go out to buy necessities. He wanted to be there when she met Jun but as a precaution, he'd prepped her just in case she'd run into his grandfather while he wasn't around. They had agreed on the finer points and had their stories polished before Len's grandfather's arrival.

She plopped on her new white mattress and imagined that she was in a hotel. She fell asleep quickly and was awakened from her nap an hour later by the sound of tinkling piano keys. Like always, she followed her ear.

Jun Tsukimori stood from the baby grand and extended his arm towards her. He had Len's golden eyes. Or rather, Len had his grandfather's eyes. He was an inch or two shorter than Len, had dark hair that was combed neatly and a ready smile, which Kaho received with a mixture of relief and puzzlement. Was he willing to turn his home into a co-ed dormitory?

Before she could shake his hand politely, he grabbed hers and clasped them. "How did Len find you?" he asked, still smiling.

"I, um, ah, I just appeared," she said. His welcoming gesture made her nervous.

"Oh. He said something about you losing your luggage?"

"Yeah, well, uh. We had a dorm in Hokkaido right next to theirs," she said. _That is, according to Tsukimori-kun's made up story when he briefed me. _"And we were on the same train but we got robbed so..."

"Did you two elope?" Jun asked suddenly.

"Huh? No. Where did you get that idea? _No!_ No! No! We didn't elope!"

Len had said that Jun Tsukimori was like Hihara-senpai but the similarity ended at both being open and friendly. Unlike their senpai, Len's grandfather/cousin didn't embarrass easily. He'd asked about her and Len without blushing at the idea of two teenagers running off together. Even if that last part didn't apply to her and Len.

"We didn't elope," she repeated, this time in a less defensive way.

Jun smiled indulgently, "It's ok. I'm a big believer in romance."

"It's really not like that," she was compelled to say.

He stroked his chin, "It's only been a few hours for you, but have you settled how you're going to get back to your families? That is, if you really didn't elope. If you aren't here on purpose and you're not thinking about contacting your parents...He's not helping you escape a debt is he?"

"No," Kaho said. _He does have an active imagination_. "I'm not involved in anything that would remind you of the underbelly of something black, endless and sinister." She had an imagination too. "No. I know I'm supposed to be in school but I'm not right now. Not for the meantime," she said with her head bowed down.

He nodded. "My cousin says he's taking the semester off because he's planning to go abroad. Is this it—your last time to be together?" She could tell that he was willing her to say yes and confirm his suspicions. "Hey, I salute you for coming this far."

Len's story about going abroad (which was the truth in their future) afforded her the chance to be more honest. "I guess you could say that," she said shyly.

"Aha! So you did elope!"

"No! No!" she exclaimed. "We're just friends! He's a good _friend_. He took time to tutor me with the violin even though he was busy for his preparations to study abroad. He's a friend and he's important to me but please don't think that I'm his girlfriend. It's embarrassing and he doesn't think of me that way so don't mention things like that to him, ok?"

"He doesn't think of you that way huh?"

She knew he was teasing her. "I already asked about you know," he replied, smiling mischievously. "Do want to know what he said?"

She was curious but she wasn't going to get her answer. Len had entered the room.

"Hino," he said, "we should go buy your things."

"Oh," _Yes to necessities_. It was already past five o' clock but she couldn't wait for tomorrow to buy clothes. _And a toothbrush..._

She had nothing to sleep in and she couldn't imagine sleeping in men's clothing, not Len's and not Jun's. "Ok," she said. "You'll excuse us, right, um..."

She decided on: "Tsukimori-san"

Jun grinned and whispered in her ear before they exited the room, "Why don't you call him Len? It'll definitely be more convenient when the three of us are together."

"Eh!"

"What's that?" It was Len who spoke. He was a few steps into the hallway while Kaho stood by the door near Jun.

"Why don't we have dinner at the cafe later? You don't mind do you Len?"

Jun waved to the pair at the gate. He gave instructions to Kaho to meet at the cafe where he was a regular and which Len had also visited.

"Take care. Don't get lost now, I mean you Len. Hino-san, don't let him wander off on his own, ok?"

.

.

.

_Manga references/Promotion for La Corda:_

_Chapter 17: Kaho, Ryotaro and Hihara end up going to Len's house so Kaho could return his coat. Hihara looks around freely and a stressed out Len says something to the effect of 'Don't look around as you wish!' This is seen in Episode 8 of the anime._

_._

_Etc:_

_Enka – a genre of Japanese Music with themes of tragic love; often called the "Japanese Blues"_

_NHK – a Japanese television channel_


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The prospect of shopping vintage was exciting. She wasn't fond of the historicals on TV which were set during the pre-indoor plumbing eras (the dark ages as far as she was concerned) so 1950s was acceptable. A time and place that had comfortable restrooms with flush toilets and tissue paper, public transportation that didn't rely heavily on horse drawn carriages, and that had access to modern medicine, things like anesthesia (not the verbal kind, e.g. phrases like- '_Suck it up!_' or '_It'll be over soon_'), was ok by her standards.

She had to get a wardrobe that fit in with her new surroundings—this was the practical angle which made their trip an errand—but she was a girl and being a girl she had a side that enjoyed dressing up. This side was eager to try on new clothes, especially since everyone around her had conspired to walk around in costume. It was the voice inside her that said it wouldn't hurt to join the fun.

But, well, it was more of a necessity that her dress code match the current timeline's. So her perspective on their outing would lean toward the practical, which she thought would mirror his attitude toward it.

She wanted to ask her co-time traveller what she should wear and if they should get something for formal events. The closest she came to that was:

"Tsukimori-kun," she said shyly, "are you really going to go shopping with me?"

He shrugged and opened the door to a local shop. "This isn't the same as the time with Yunoki-senpai. You can dress as slovenly as you like. I'm not one to judge."

_Is he trying to be funny?_

She narrowed her eyes, "You're not judgmental. But you're a critic. That's what you are."

"You're not going to dress for me are you?"

She almost gaped at him. His tone was plain and not the least bit playful but her mind, in a weird automatic way that made her blush, replayed his words.

"You're dressing for yourself," he said as if to clarify his point, "so my opinion won't matter."

It happened again, her neurons had misfired. She clamped her mouth shut but the odd and embarrassing urge to contradict him felt like a tingling sensation on her lips—like a wayward signal from her brain. She had to get a hold of herself.

She just wanted company. Maybe he meant to be at another store while she shopped but she wasn't going to let him leave and pick her up later.

"Um, you can help me choose right?" she said before she knew it. "No? Not even tell me if I look nice?"

She was just trying to fit in with the rest, she said to him. And then, "Please? I at least need you tell me I look decent."

When he agreed, she was glad. She pulled at the sleeve of his dress shirt and said, "You know, it probably doesn't count coming from me, but _you_ look great. You look _really_ nice."

He was attractive without being too conscious of it but she still wanted to tease him. He blushed and she let go of his sleeve to go through the racks of clothing. There was a familiar tune playing in the background, which she probably recognized from a movie. The word '_Tequila_' was dropped randomly in the instrumental song.

She held up plaid shirts, blue jeans, and patterned blouses against her frame and went to the dressing room. _No, this definitely isn't like the time with Yunoki-senpai_. She was having more fun in the 1950s.

She twirled in a light blue poodle skirt with a red and white poodle embroidered at the left hem.

"Is this ok?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied.

He was sitting on the divan in front of the dressing rooms with his arms and legs crossed. She had twirled a little to see if he'd change his expression but the blink or two she got from him was probably his limit. He didn't look like he was impatient to leave and because he'd obligated himself to take care of her—out of necessity, she said to herself, because everything was about necessity now that they were marooned in the past—the words '_this has nothing to do with me_' definitely weren't waiting behind his lips.

_Is he thinking about practice? _

"Did you really mean to accompany me?"

"You think I'd let you go without a chaperon?"

She returned to the racks and got more clothes. His eyes widened when he saw the load she carried to the dressing room.

"We do our own laundry in the house," he reminded.

"I can manage," she said, pulling the curtain shut.

Her refection in the dressing room mirror smiled back at her. A wide-eyed stare was a good reaction.

.

.

"At least you know I'm not overspending," she said as they walked to the counter with her items, sans most of the stuff she'd picked up just to bait him. She giggled because she'd succeeded in surprising him with one of her outfits. She'd come out of the dressing room with short hair (a wig) and a fake mustache; a leather jacket over a white t-shirt had been her homage to James Dean. She suggested that he do the same and try the _rebel-without-a-cause-look_.

"You'd do better than me," he answered.

"But you're the prettier one."

He was easily the _bishounen_ of the moment. The girl at the counter seemed to think so when she batted her eyelashes at him.

Len sighed. "I'm not trying on your skirts."

She grinned. He was good looking. It was too bad he didn't have sisters. Would they be just as talented at the violin?

_Maybe. If he decides to teach them..._

"You're great you know."

"Oh?" he said, slightly confused.

"Yeah," she said, smiling again. She hooked her free arm around his and walked to the exit, "I've never doubted it."

The girl who totalled their items turned a dial on the square radio on the counter and changed the station in time for Kaho to hear another song before they left the store.

'_Are the stars out tonight? _

_I don't know if it's cloudy or bright_

_Cause I only have eyes for you_'

She noticed the arm she had tucked in his and shifted her gaze to his face, gingerly returning her arm to its place at her side. He probably assumed that the compliments he received were given lightly but she was honest whenever she praised him. His standard was something to aspire to and she believed that his self-control raised him above everyone else. She thought he was amazing.

But it was strange that whenever she remembered him, she frequently saw his face in profile. He was looking forward—as if to remind her that she thought of him in this way and that she'd always chase after him.

'_I only have eyes for you...'_

She blinked when, suddenly, his eyes met hers.

"What's the matter, Hino?" he said with a frown.

"Nothing," she answered.

His frown coincided with their first step onto the street and she was about to frown too when she caught something from the corner of the eye, "Oh. Tsukimori-kun, look! It's Ruriko, your grandmother."

"Do you know how they met?" she asked, watching Ruriko's back as she walked towards the other side of the road.

"I'm not sure. My father told me when I joined the concours that my grandmother had injured her wrist and that my grandfather joined the concours as a new second year representative after her injury. I think the rules were different then. I don't know if they were going out before that."

_Oh. So Jun-san did join eventually._ But it was too bad about Ruriko's wrist.

"It happened before the start of the second selection."

"The second selection? It took that long?"

"What do you mean, Hino?" Len asked, surprised by the feeling in her voice.

"He has to join," Kaho said. It was the right thing to do for everyone concerned.

If Jun joins, she said to herself, he could lead her to Lili. Indirectly, she guessed. _But still..._

A rapid-fire of thoughts ricocheted in her head: She planned to tail Jun to find Lili. But it looked like she had to hunt on her own. How were they supposed to get home if Jun Tsukimori doesn't agree to join the concours? Would Jun cooperate to introduce her to Lili? What would make Jun want to find him?

She had to convince Jun so Lili would show them how to return to the future—if he couldn't magically transport them to the correct decade—as a favour to her. This plan was number one on her list and it stood side by side with the worst possible thought, which crossed her mind at about the same speed: _What if I can't see him because I'm in the wrong year?_

She had to ignore it.

"Hino, are you all right?"

Her resolve was strong.

"Tsukimori-kun," she said before she could hesitate, "I know how we can get home."

.

.

.

_Manga references/Promotion for La Corda:_

_Chapter 23: Kahoko poses as Yunoki's love interest to ward off Ayano, one of Yunoki's fiancée candidates, and has to dress up. This was done in episode 14 of the anime._

_I honestly think she'd be more open and have more fun shopping with Len simply because she likes him._

.

_Music in this chapter:_

_Tequila by the Champs – was number one in the US Billboards from March-April of 1958. I wasn't able to find out if this song did well in Japan but foreign songs have made it to the Japanese charts even then, e.g. Neil Sedaka's 'Calendar Girl' which was number one in the Japanese hit chart 'Utamatic' in 1961. (This was just a report for this specific song. Sadly, I wasn't able to find charts for the different years.) _

_I Only Have Eyes for You – the version Kaho hears is Peggy Lee's from 1950. There are many wonderful covers of this song but my special mention goes to the Flamingos' 1959 rendition_.

.

_Listen to the music :) I recommend it.  
><em>


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

A snippet from her lessons in Japanese history was a quick commentary while they walked: Yokohama underwent extensive rebuilding after the end of the American occupation. Thus, construction and renewal, its remnants, and results were designing a new landscape in the 1950s.

The park had always been her favourite place to visit, and like she had planned moments before being whisked away to a different era, she stopped by to enjoy the view of the harbour. She hadn't thought about watching cars—some tiny and bug-like, others long and streamlined—but that was what they were doing while she tried to gather the courage to tell Len about Lili.

She peered into the windows of a two-door silver blue car and read the words _Biscayne_ embroidered on the front seat. The driver's side was continuous with the passenger's end and reminded her of a couch—it was good for reclining and maybe putting up your feet.

"Are you going to tell me now how we can get home?"

"Do you know how to drive?" she said, projecting the first statement from the top of her head. She was still viewing the car's interior.

"No, I haven't learned yet."

"It'd be great to drive a car like this."

"I wish we could take pictures," she added, turning to him. "When you learn how to drive, will you take me around?"

It was a spur of the moment question. She hadn't thought about how his response would affect her if he'd say no and maybe she should have thought twice before asking in the first place.

The night before he left for Vienna, she had asked him if she could listen to his practice and if it was still ok to play duets with him. She didn't weigh her words or think about what qualified as asking too much. She only knew that she wanted to ask and that part of her was always hopeful when it came to his replies. He had spoiled her in a way because, even if he'd reply in the negative, part of her believed, while she anticipated his answer, that he should say yes—and only because she had asked.

'_What am I thinking?' _she said to herself.

"I won't say that I can't or that it'll be impossible," he said. "I'm not going to be around for a while but maybe in the future, when I return."

She found herself looking once more at his profile. There was something elusive about it that made her want to peer into his face. But she was the one with the secret and she eluded the regret brought about by the recent and unpleasant memory.

He faced her and they locked eyes, "You can ask me again when I get back. Ask me anything at all."

He'd try to fulfil her requests and it made her happier than she expected to hear him say it. It gave her hope which glowed like a firefly inside her.

Would she have to let it go?

For the meantime, its home would be her heart, and she would marvel at its life.

Anything at all, she thought. _Anything at all..._

Maybe, just maybe...

He'd let her keep it and not take it away.

**.**

**.**

Jun's favourite hang-out was only a short distance away from the park. It was at the end of the street, after a row of shops. The first thing she noticed when they entered was the stage with the upright and drum set. She had imagined a diner with movie posters on the walls and girls on roller-skates carrying milkshakes but was instead taken to a cozy cafe with warm Tuscan yellow walls, wood panelling, and a tiled black and white floor. The dark upholstery of the chairs and rich mahogany of the tables contrasted with the image she had in mind which had bright reds, more lights, more chrome, and a blinking neon sign.

But her priority wasn't adjusting her expectations about the place she was in. She was going to tell Len her biggest secret and before she could do this, they both had to be seated comfortably, and since Jun would be joining them in the cafe she had to tell him soon.

The band-aid analogy fit her present situation: she just had to let it out, just tell him and let him handle for himself all the implications of her secret. She gulped what was left of her ice tea. She knew she had made him wait long enough.

"Should I buy you another one?" Len asked.

She winced. Ok, it wasn't the right time to be reminded that he was paying for her expenses. Money was never one of the things she thought she would owe him.

"I owe you a lot though," she whispered.

"What's that?"

He sounded eager to move on and looked a bit concerned over her inexplicable anxiety. He sighed when she didn't speak, "What's wrong Hino? You said you knew how we can get back home, are you going to tell me or aren't you?"

She sighed too. He couldn't imagine why she'd be so nervous. _Just tell him Kaho_, she said to herself. _The concours is over and what's important is—no, it's urgent that you go back..._

"Tsukimori-kun," she began. In her head, she doubted he would hate her but she still debated with herself if she should ask him to promise not to think less of her.

"Hm?" He prodded.

"Do you know the legend of the fairy that lives in Seisou?"

"The fairy that helped the founder build the Music School? Yes, I know it."

"Well...um...I've met the fairy, his name is Lili, and I think if we convince Jun to join the concours we can talk to Lili and he can help us go home." She could've won a world record—it was the fastest sentence she'd ever spoken.

Len blinked a few times but the message must have sunk in. He uncrossed his arms from his chest, brushed his bangs away from his face and sighed. She couldn't believe his reaction or his next words, "You're not kidding," he said evenly. "Don't look so surprised Hino. I know you're telling the truth."

"Eh?"

"It makes sense," he said, eyeing her carefully. He lowered his eyes for a moment and said, "It makes sense that he chose you."

She searched his face for a sign of disapproval but found none. How he understood that she'd been chosen to participate and his acceptance of it confused her.

"I didn't think you'd know about the story..."

He sighed again. She knew this was his habit when he was around her. He said, "Hino, it's ok."

She delayed telling him about her plan because she was apprehensive about his possible reaction to her secret. He'd sensed this and tried to put her at ease.

"We're past all of that aren't we? You know what I'm referring to, right? I don't hold it against you. It's not fair to you and I think you should be fair to me and believe that I know enough about the history of our school. I haven't shut out the world to concentrate on music. I know the school legend, among other things. Also, I haven't forgotten what it's like to do something for recreation."

She expected him to say more but he'd lost momentum. He stopped speaking and looked away, so she tried to be supportive and said, "Don't forget, you tried convenience store food too."

Really, he could be fascinating sometimes.

"Thanks to you."

"And fast food," she added. He probably thought she was teasing him now.

"Tsuchiura told you?"

"Mmm-hmm, he mentioned it. Something about Hihara-senpai asking advice too but he didn't elaborate. Probably some guy talk he didn't want to tell me about."

He was about to smile, she could tell. He turned his head towards the entrance to check for Jun then maneuvred the topic back to their plan, "How do you think we should convince him?"

"I was hoping you'd know how..." she admitted. "I saw Lili ambush Jun-san and he reacted the same way I did when I met Lili. I'm not sure you'd call Lili persuasive and I didn't want to join just because I could see fairies but because Lili loved music so much and..." She avoided making eye contact but she wanted to tell him: "You were a big influence then. When I heard you play Ave Maria, I wanted to do the same, to play just as beautifully. Lili was ecstatic. Did you know, he told me that 'music' is spelled with the same character that spells 'fun'." She paused to smile, "It wasn't just Lili—his words grew on me too."

She snuck a peek at him, at the pleasant way his features were arranged and realized that he understood her feelings. It was a brief glance but the joy that blossomed in her chest was quick to appear and stayed longer than the seconds she spent looking at his face.

"I guess I'm easy," she said, a little self-conscious about the feelings he stirred inside her. "I don't know about your grandfather though. Maybe Lili hasn't cried in front of him yet or maybe Jun-san's just good at hiding."

"Maybe," Len agreed. "He's been going out often...He's restless these days."

"Lili could still be hunting him down."

Len found it funny that a fairy would be hunting down a teenager.

"No, really. He was relentless!"

"Who's relentless?" said Jun Tsukimori as he took his seat next to Len. "Are you talking about an ex-boyfriend?"

Kaho held up her hands, "No way, I've never had a boyfriend."

"Apart from Len you mean?"

"Eh?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Len said dryly.

Jun raised an eyebrow, "Okaaay," he said slowly. "Hey Hino-san, have you ever tried to ask Len what he thinks about you?"

"Oh," she laughed. "I already know that. He thinks I'm a nuisance. But I have a way with him so he's nice to me—most of the time."

Jun chuckled, "Ok. I accept that. You've trained him well. Ah, but the piano's vacant," he said, and he waved at someone she couldn't see from her side of table, "and there's my best buddy at the drums."

He clapped his hand onto Len's shoulder and strode to the stage near the cafe's entrance.

"Does he usually perform here?" Kaho asked.

"Yes he does," Len answered. "A lot of the customers actually come to see him play."

How many people were there when they entered the cafe? The tables hadn't been full when they arrived.

"Does he do this for free? If he's so talented why doesn't he want to join the concours?"

"Well," Len said, contemplating his next words, "didn't Tsuchiura also dislike competitions?"

"Oh, right. That's true..."

"I'm not sure about my grandfather though. Maybe classical music isn't his taste."

"What do you mean?"

They watched Jun take his place in front of the piano. Jun's friend at the drums cracked his knuckles and twirled his drumstick, returning Jun's smile with a nod.

"You'll know what I mean in a second," Len answered.

"Oh!" her mouth formed a perfect circle. "I know this, it's _Mary Poppins_!"

"_My Favorite Things_," Len supplied. "And it's from _Sound of Music_, not _Mary Poppins_."

It was the wrong movie but she knew the right lyrics, "_...brown paper packages tied up with string. These are a few of my favourite things._."

Before she could sing along to the next line, a hundred sparkling notes flowed from the piano. They were clear, pure, and brilliant.

"It's great! Is this improvised?"

"Jazz lives on improvisation," Len said. "But I think he's had time to be more selective with his playing."

"Oh, it's another song," she said. "_Someday my prince will come..."_

There was a third half after. "He's doing a medley," Len explained. "This song is called _Moanin'_"

"He likes this a lot," she said. "He looks like he's having a great time."

She didn't miss the pangs of the longing in her own voice: she knew she wanted her violin and that she would play too if she had it with her.

.

.

When Jun returned to his seat, Kaho had just one question to ask him: "Why don't you want to join the concours? You look like you really love to play."

He laughed, "Yeah, I do. It's really fun."

"Then why not join?"

"I don't mind competing but I don't imagine myself playing classical for a row of judges."

"Oh, really?" Kaho said. She asked about another possibility, "You don't have stage fright do you?"

_Maybe he can play in front of restaurant crowds but not in larger gatherings..._

"No," Jun answered. "An auditorium of students is ok. I'd just prefer it if I could do jazz instead of classical."

Len's eyes met hers as if to say 'there's your answer'.

"Well, why don't you join and play Jazz Piano?"

"Huh?"

He hedged before replying, "Because classical is _way_ up there. In concours like Seisou's, classical music is strictly imposed as the best. It's the way it is and I don't know if I fit in."

Kaho only shook her head, "I get it Jun-san. Classical is the convention. But is there a rule that says you can't play jazz? You just have to pick a piece that works well with the theme."

She joined the concours, she should know. "And didn't Gershwin succeed with '_Rhapsody in Blue_'? You can do the same!"

Maybe her enthusiasm was too much for him but she had to continue, "You can do it Jun-san! With your skill at the piano you can give the judges a different perspective. You'll be different and memorable! As long as your piece fits the theme, you'll win your audience over. It's true! I played Chopin on violin once and I wasn't banned for it!"

Len cleared his throat. Kaho chose not to look in his direction. He wouldn't dare breathe a word about her coming in last, would he?

_If he does, how will I punish him?_

"Gershwin had an orchestra though," Jun said in a voice quieter than Kaho's. "Are you going to continue standing? The other customers are staring at us."

She hadn't noticed she'd stood up. "I just want to make this clear to you: The theme and the judges are just elements in a contest. If you win, you'll prove that they didn't limit your creativity. In fact restrictions can make you more creative. If you accept the challenge, it can tell you a lot about yourself. Tell me you agree."

She took her seat and Jun sighed in a way that reminded her of Len. He turned to his grandson/cousin, "Why do I feel like she does this all the time? She was the one who convinced you to elope wasn't she?"

"_No_," Kaho said firmly. "And for the last time, he and I didn't elope!"

"Ok, so what are two sixteen year olds of the opposite gender doing miles away from home?"

Len, who had looked as though he had been ignoring them, finally spoke up, "You can stop teasing her because Hino and I aren't anything more than friends."

"I think that's why I'm teasing her," Jun said.

"You're changing the subject," Len said before launching into his own attempt to persuade Jun. "They've already added your name to the list of contestants and I'm sure you're aware that it's a coveted position. Take the facts as they are and don't waste too much time thinking about it. Don't waste this opportunity."

"I look at it more as an invitation to join..." Jun trailed off. "Ok, I assumed she knew because you told her," he said, referring to Kaho. "But how did you find out in the first place?"

"I told him," Kaho said quickly. "I was there during the first selection and I heard the news from one of the contestants."

"Oh," Jun said, his brow furrowed. "You know someone from the school?"

"Yes," she said.

Did Ruriko count?

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Jun asked.

"A girl," she answered.

"Ah," he said, prolonging the vowel. "But you chose to stay with Len over here."

She tried to hide her embarrassment. "It's not as if I was asked to stay with her, I mean, well..."

Jun smiled at Len. Len sighed, "It's only for a while."

She wasn't going to let Jun sidetrack them. "This is about you, not me," she said. "Can you imagine what the other music students would feel if they were asked to participate? The first selection is over. It must mean that you deserve to join if there are people trying to convince you."

"Not many people have tried," Jun said.

She asked, "Does it matter how many?"

"Well, there's just you and well...er...this other..." He hesitated.

_He's thinking about Lili_, she concluded. "They believe in your talent. You said you don't have stage fright, if that's true then think about the people who will get to hear you perform. Tsukimori-kun's right, this is an opportunity. You can get more people to appreciate your music and your point of view. Won't that be great?"

"You'll leave an impression," Len said. "It's good to have people re-think their own tastes and perspectives. They might be able to do that when they hear you play." He sought Kaho's eyes, "It's not always about winning."

What passed was tacit agreement between her and Len. His look had told her that. She felt her lips curve into a smile.

"Ok. I'll think about it," Jun said abruptly.

She doubted her ears. He probably just wanted to put an end to the conversation.

"Really? You will?"

"Yes, I mean, from you two it does seem like the contest will be worth my while," he said. Her penetrating gaze made up him hold up his hand and mark a cross over his heart, "I swear. I promise will think about joining."

_YES!_

"You won't regret it!" she said with her widest smile.

Jun hadn't committed but they had a start. First Jun, then Lili, and then...

_It won't be long..._

.

.

.

_Pieces mentioned in this chapter:_

_My Favourite Things + Someday My Prince Will Come + Moanin' Medley: from the anime Sakamichi no Apollon. I haven't watched this series, it's set in the 1960s and is about Jazz music (which makes me think I ought to), but the video of this medley and the soundtrack of the anime are available on YouTube. A bit of an anachronism here: "My Favourite Things" was published in 1959 when the musical "Sound of Music" was first performed on Broadway, while the Disney version of "Sound of Music", which starred Julie Andrews came out in 1965. John Coltrane's 1961 version on saxophone made the song a jazz classic. The original "Someday My Prince Will Come" is from the Disney animated movie "Snow White" which was released in 1937. It became a popular jazz standard after Daver Brubeck's 1957 version. Lastly, 'Moanin' by Art Blakey and the Messengers, with Bobby Timmons on piano, was recorded in 1958. _

_Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin: featured in Disney's Fantasia and in Nodame Cantabile. One of my favourite pieces_

_._

_Manga references/Promotion for La Corda:_

_Chapter 67: Kaho goes to Len's home at night to give him her present. In a nutshell, she tells him how seeing him would help calm her down and he says, in typical Len fashion, that she can get by without him—"this has nothing to do with me anymore". But she asks him not to think that way and requests that he stay by her side. He then replies that he can't. When she misinterprets his words, he hugs her and confesses that the reason he can't be with her is because he is leaving on the day of her competition—"tomorrow". _

_Chapter 55: Len's first experience with convenience store food, which Kaho buys for him._

_Chapter 33: Len, Tsuchiura and Hihara eat fast food together. This is another first for Len. Hihara is so funny in this. He asks Ryo and Len about their experience with girls._

_._

_Etc:_

_La Corda is set in Yokohama which is a port city, hence the ships Kaho mentions in Chapter 1. She would have a terrific view of the harbour in Yamashita Park which was constructed in 1923._

_The Chevrolet Biscayne – was produced in the US from 1958-1972. Of course, I just imported it to Japan for this story. Kaho sees a silver blue version of this gorgeous car but there were many colors to choose from. The exterior paint even came in two tones: Rio Red + Artic White, Artic White + Cashmere Blue, Two shades of blue, etc. But if you want to imagine a car that's made in Japan, the Mikasa touring car is pretty too._

_The Subaru 360 – this cutie pie is called the Ladybug in Japan. It was produced from 1958-1971._

_._

_The chapter is long and so are the notes. I apologize for any misspelled words and errors._


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Kaho's _'It won't be long'_ wasn't as brief an interlude as she'd predicted. She thought a day to reflect was enough but since Jun's answer wasn't forthcoming, she went to Seisou to try her other plan to find Lili. Len had been there with her and acted as her look-out—since he didn't know how else he could help find a fairy he couldn't see—until he had to excuse himself because of his tutoring schedule. It was a Friday, and Kaho tried not to attract attention while whispering the name Lili behind some bushes near the practice rooms.

She and Len met later in the afternoon at the train station where they planned to intercept Jun who had said something about taking a train to buy tickets for the upcoming Jazz Festival. They found him at the exact moment he arrived.

"Not yet," Jun Tsukimori answered when Kaho asked him if he had made up his mind about the concours. "I still have to think about how I'm supposed to react to this competition." He rolled his shoulders, stretched his arms and watched the commuters. "I can share my point of view but I know I can do this only to an extent."

Kaho let her elbow rest on the table and propped her chin on her palm. She had nothing yet to say to Jun so she opted to watch Len, who busied himself with making side notes on a piece of sheet music. She looked at her empty lap and wished she had sheet music to study too but, that wish unfulfilled, boredom circulated in her body and spilled from her fingers as she tapped her fork idly on a porcelain dish that moments ago, had been the seat for a delicate slice of strawberry shortcake.

Kaho discovered that the cake shop Mia and Nao frequented had already been part of the train station and was a popular hang-out since it opened in the early 1950s. The shop, with its eye-catching window boxes, painted aquamarine and decorated with sedge and purple verbena, was an oasis for the eyes amidst the muted browns and dull greys of a train station.

She remembered the countless times she had chatted with her friends at their regular table (which she could see from where she was sitting) and wondered if she should just wait on Jun to join the concours after Ruriko's injury because that was sure to happen and once Jun reached that point, she and Len could contact Lili and he would help transport them home without delay. The dark brown umbrella over her head blocked her view of the sky but she hoped her prayer would still reach the heavens.

_Please Kamisama, please make him agree. I don't want to wait forever before I get home._

"I understand you want to be yourself," Kaho said, back on her mission to convince Jun, "so you have to see that that's great because it'll lead you to the right piece. If it has to be classical"—she frowned at his inattention—"it's not that you won't stand out if you don't do jazz, you haven't tried so you can't know yet." There was a large white fan with his name on it if she could conjure one. "Come on, don't be lazy."

"You're incredible," Jun said, his voice somewhere between honest respect for her perseverance and mild exasperation. "You're very difficult to discourage," he added. "We should toast her, Len."

Kaho harrumphed.

"You make a good point Hino-san. And you always sound so passionate when making it. I'm really impressed."

"But will you join?"

He shook his head, looked about him and said, "I'm still thinking about it. You know, maybe I want a muse...like you are for Len."

"Eh?"

"You're doing it again," Len said in a cool voice. "You're avoiding her question."

"But aren't I right? Remember when you arrived Hino-san and I mentioned talking to Len about you? You're the reason he's here. He's confirmed it."

He was about to tease her, she could tell by his sly smile.

"Did he follow you?" Jun asked. "Or were you supposed to meet at another station but you missed your schedule? Was it the sort of fate-thwarting incident that happens to lovers? Is this a trial for you to overcome, you know, 'Love conquers all'?"

"Stop, please," Kaho held out her hand. She was getting tired of his teasing.

Len said nothing. He kept his arms crossed and looked impatiently at Jun who only spared him a glance. Kaho imagined the gears turning in Len's brain. It was a useful talent that—ignoring people. However, it wasn't a talent she possessed. She was the sort who had to keep talking.

"He was just looking for me because I needed help," she explained, ignoring Jun's 'I don't believe you' face.

"The truth, actually, is as boring as it is simple and you're just adopting a circumstantial way of looking at things."

"Right, I can only infer," Jun said, amused. "The words '_You are the reason_' make an appealing line though. And it would be nice to have someone as passionate as you for inspiration. That'd be irresistible, don't you think?"

She blushed and Jun laughed. He stopped laughing when a trio of cute high school girls caught his eye. "I wish I had a girlfriend," he said suddenly.

"Maybe if I go get myself a soda I'll find her," he mused, running a hand through his dark hair, "Excuse me, Hino-san, I'm going to go tempt fate...not that I don't think imagining the meeting hasn't already removed it from the possibilities."

"Fate makes cancellations too huh?" Kaho said.

"I guess she's casual about it," Jun said. "Or maybe, since she can schedule liberally, we should live ready for her appointments in case she decides to pencil us in."

Kaho wanted to ask Jun why he thought Fate was a woman—and a capricious one at that.

"We should go," Len said, using Jun's sudden desire for a predetermined romantic meeting as their cue to leave. They agreed to meet near an exit and Jun set off to find a vending machine and/or a girlfriend.

_Or Fate's "Customer Service Center"... (Hi, I'm Destiny. How can I help you?)_

.

.

She'd wanted to tell Jun, for the nth time, that she and Len weren't an item. To Jun, it was probably obvious that she was denying a relationship with Len—even though she wasn't—and that any onlooker would think she was Len's girlfriend if they knew she was a house guest at the Tsukimori mansion.

'_But it isn't true!' _ She declared countless times in her head.

"Keeping quiet is definitely more effective," she said as she walked with Len. He didn't do 'denial'. He liked to shut up and let rumours die down on their own.

"Did you say something?" Len asked.

"_Nandemonaiii_!"

The last syllable came out in a howl as a man in a baggy jacket stepped on her foot. "What was that? He didn't even apologize!"

"Hey!"

Someone had bumped into her shoulder, and this time Kaho received an immediate apology. It was Len's grandmother.

"Oh," she said, "it's you! Ah, sorry. I think that man has my bag and I have to chase him..Um, excuse me," Ruriko said.

"What?" Kaho blinked. "Tsukimori-kun did you hear..." She trailed off. "Huh? Now where did he go?"

Kaho ran after Ruriko but had lost sight of the man with Ruriko's bag. When she caught up with her, Ruriko was biting her sleeve, looking left and right for the criminal in a baggy jacket.

"Hey," Kaho placed a hand on Ruriko's arm. She steered Ruriko and they turned a corner, scanning the crowd of people who had just disembarked from the train. Thankfully, this crowd looked as though they had just come from an unnamed convention and wore the same bright blue and yellow vests that would make any non-uniformed thief stand out.

"Look!" Kaho shouted. "There he is!"

The man started to run, evading a post before he could crash into it.

Kaho chased after him, weaving through the throng of blue-and-yellow vest-wearing conference delegates, who were interspersed with a smaller group of balloon-carrying children. The children's short statures gave her a clearer view of the escaping thief but the colorful balloons bobbed here and there and occasionally blocked her vision.

"Stop you!" she shouted. She was prepared to tackle the man if it came to it.

Her intended target made the mistake of looking back, and not noticing the obstacle before him, tripped over a blue violin case. He yelped when his jaw hit the concrete.

"Tsukimori-kun!" Kaho said in surprise. She halted in front of Len, who watched the man on the ground wipe his bloody nose with a handkerchief.

"I think this is yours," Len said to Ruriko as he handed her a small green shoulder bag.

Ruriko accepted the bag with both hands and bowed while murmuring her thanks. Security materialized next to Len and hauled off the crook who held a blood-stained handkerchief to his nose.

"I informed the nearest guard," Len explained when they reached the booth where they had been standing prior to the appearance of the thief. "We took another route to cut him off."

"Good thinking," Kaho beamed with approval. She placed a comforting hand on Ruriko's shoulder. The girl hadn't spoken since Len returned her bag. "Are you ok?"

Ruriko managed a weak smile. "I'm sorry for the trouble," she said. "I wanted to shout 'Thief' but I..." She hesitated and apologized again, ending her sentence with a meek 'thank you'.

"No, it's ok," Kaho said. The trio stood awkwardly for what seemed like eons until a pair of loud footfalls caught their attention.

"There you are!" Tsukumori Jun shouted. He saw Ruriko and asked, "What happened?"

Kaho caught the split second changes that passed across Jun's face. There was surprise then suddenly delight. He must have forgotten what he wanted to say because he stood motionless with his lips slightly parted. He was spellbound.

_This must be it_, Kaho thought. _Journeys end in lovers' meeting._

Ruriko on the other hand avoided making eye contact. She lifted her eyes briefly and said her self-conscious goodbyes, mentioning a music event she had to attend.

"Ok, do you want us to walk you there?" Kaho offered. She glanced at Jun who was still paralyzed with wonder and Len who was the definition of nonchalant.

"No, it's ok," Ruriko said hurriedly. She bowed. "My parents are probably wondering where I am."

"Ok," Kaho said. "Oh, by the way, this is Jun Tsukimori," she said, introducing Len's grandfather/cousin first. "And this is Len..."

"Her boyfriend," Jun said suddenly, coming out of his trance. Before Kaho could make any complaints or objections, Jun sidestepped her and stood directly in front of Ruriko. "I'm Jun Tsukimori, very pleased to meet you."

Without warning, he took Ruriko's hand and kissed it.

"Wow," Kaho said. She checked for Len's reaction. He raised an eyebrow.

Ruriko blinked a few times and looked towards Kaho for help. Kaho, not sure what to do, nudged Jun and said, "I think she's going to be late for something very important if you don't let go of her hand."

"Ah, ok," Jun complied and released Ruriko's hand. And Ruriko, who was a bit red, turned away and with a slight incline of the head, gestured a final and much repeated goodbye.

"Wow," Jun said over and over. "Wow..."

"I don't think he realized that you didn't get to mention her name," Len said. Jun was still looking in the direction Ruriko had disappeared. "I'm not sure it's supposed to happen this way."

"You don't know your grandparents love story?" Kaho asked in a whisper.

"No, what about you? Do you know how your grandparents met and fell in love?"

"I think they were pen pals," Kaho replied, eyeing Jun who still hadn't recovered. "I think we should check if his spirit hasn't left his body to search for Ruriko-san."

"Jun-san, are you all right?" Kaho asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Huh? Yeah..."

"Okaay,"she said, not believing him. He was a textbook case of disoriented, lovestruck boy, so she grabbed his arm and led him to the nearest seat. Len followed.

"Do you ask yourself whenever you meet a girl if she's the one you've been waiting for?" Jun asked Len.

_No, he doesn't_, Kaho answered for Len in her head.

His half-lidded gaze was focused on a distant object. He then regarded Jun and said, as though in a place to instruct the teenage version of his grandfather, "Aren't we only sixteen years into this life?"

Other questions came to mind as Kaho dissected his reply. _What did he mean by that? Does he expect to wait a few years because he's only sixteen and thinks he isn't ready? _

"I think," he added softly, "I won't have to ask."

It was always so hard to tell with him. _Does he mean he won't question his feelings?_

"What's her name?" Jun said out of the blue.

"Ruriko Ichida," Len answered. "She's a second year student majoring in piano."

"She goes to Seisou?" Jun said in disbelief.

"She is also the second year's representative in the concours," Len said. "I'm surprised you don't know."

Jun raked a hand through his hair, "Is she?"

"Yes," Len said, eyeing Jun meaningfully.

Hino wondered why Jun didn't ask Len how he got his information. When Jun turned at last to face her, his words weren't surprising at all. They were exactly what she expected him to say.

"Hino-san," Jun announced, "I'm joining the concours."

.

.

.

_Etc:_

_Journeys end in lovers' meeting. – from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night_

_I made the cake shop part of the train station - just a preference, really, no historical basis_


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Len took Kaho to the second floor balcony so they could both relax and enjoy the cool night air. Jun had gone ahead to practice in an upstairs room and they could hear the gentle sound of his piano—the notes embellished the night breeze. It wasn't a triumph for them yet, Len had told her, because they still had to talk to Jun about meeting Lili.

"I think it's sweet," Kaho said.

"What is?" Len asked without looking at her.

"That he's going to join because of your grandmother," Kaho answered.

"You don't think it's the wrong motive?"

"Not really," she said, suddenly alert because he had turned to face her. "He wanted a muse didn't he?"

She smiled at him and he concentrated on her face for a beat longer. Slowly, self-consciously, she tucked her smile. He probably had an opinion about his grandfather's decision but Kaho wasn't sure he was going to share it. Still, she wondered if she should ask...

"He's not playing jazz," Len commented.

"No, he's not," she said, allowing words to replace quiet thoughts. "It's _Liebestraum_. I guess he's fallen hard, huh?"

_Liebestraum_, German for 'Dreams of Love', Jun Tsukimori was playing the third and most splendid one. She loved the directive— 'Love as long as you can! Love as long as you may!' which were verses that inspired Franz Lizst to set the poem to music.

"Oh, but he's decreased the tempo," Kaho said. "It's like raindrops...oh, now it's way syncopated. Wow," she said after the piece was finished, "I've never heard it like that."

"He can play it in different styles," Len said. "He's good at this. I heard his arrangement of _Liebestraum_ for violin and guitar when I was younger, when he still played with a jazz quartet."

"Oh, that must have been amazing. How old were you?"

"Seven, I think. It was for their anniversary."

"That's wonderful."

"I have the score for violin, if you want to try it."

"Oh! That'd be great! I feel like I haven't touched a violin in eons!"

A good two feet separated them, so when Len crossed that distance and called her name, she knew he was about to say something important.

"You should practice while you're here," he said. "I'll get you a violin tomorrow."

_Oh! But that's expensive_! "Tsukimori-kun," she said hurriedly, "you really shouldn't buy me one!"

"I meant you can borrow one. There's another violin in this house which just needs a little tuning."

"Oh...sorry," she said sheepishly. "Yeah, I know we can't afford to buy me a violin."

"You two sound like husband and wife, talking about what you can't buy and all that," chimed Jun who emerged from behind the balcony doors. "No, I wasn't eavesdropping," he added when Len gave him a disapproving glare.

"How long have you been standing there?" Len asked.

"Long enough that I know about the state of your finances," he answered. He adopted the tone of a concerned relative giving advice, "You've got to get a second job and take better care of your family, Len." Then he declared: "Let it be known that I'm against making Hino-san join the workforce."

"You're relentless," Len said. He passed by Jun and held the door for Kaho before going inside.

.

.

The following day was a weekend but all three members of the newly-revised Tsukimori household had woken up early—the first to practice, the second to satisfy his intuition, and the third because of the sound of a familiar violin. The sun had just risen but Kaho deferred soaking in the nourishing warmth of its rays to creep quietly out of her room and follow the flowing notes. Her music detective's ears led her to the upstairs sitting room where Len stood near Jun's baby grand piano. He had his back to her but stopped playing when he noticed her presence.

"Good morning," she greeted him.

She didn't comment on the early hour, instead she approached the piano where he had placed the score of the piece he'd been practicing. The notes were in various states: in pencil, in pen and in pen but crossed out. There was also a whole section that had been marked with a red x.

"Did you write this?" she asked, not without a bit of awe.

"I haven't transferred it yet," he answered, explaining the not so pristine appearance of the music sheet she was holding.

"Oh, but it's beautiful," she said. He merely blinked and she continued out of her own wish to tell him, "It was tender and poignant."

He smiled when he thanked her. "It's called _Secret Garden_," he said, giving the title of his piece without her having to solicit it.

"It fits."

The small smile he had on his face reminded her of the photo her grandmother had taken. This was another rare expression and she wanted to take her own memento. In his eyes too was something she wanted to remember, the look was so soft...

"I'd like to hear you play it."

She barely had time to daydream.

"Are you sure you want me to?" she said, hesitating because she might not do his piece justice.

His unexpected reply put them in a lighter mood, "Yes, even if you are in your pajamas."

_Oh_. She was only a little embarrassed and also a little playful, so she faked a stern expression and said, "I notice you aren't wearing yours. Don't you know it's customary to wear your pajamas while you play a new composition? You can't do well without them."

She nearly tut-tutted. But she blew up her cheeks like a puffer fish and wiggled her nose at him. He laughed genuinely. At first he covered his mouth but she pulled his arm and his hand slipped from his mouth to reveal a grin. She liked how it looked so well on his face, so she shocked him even more by doing the chicken dance. Hilarity overcame him and he fell backward into a nearby sofa.

"What are you two doing?" asked a voice belonging to the only other male in the house. "Is this some sort of bizarre courtship ritual?"

Jun, like Len, was dressed in chinos and a button-down shirt. "_Bizarre_, _bizarre_," Jun said in his best documentary-host voice, "The world renowned naturalist acknowledged that he too was befuddled by such strange behaviour from this heretofore undiscovered species..."

Len, still experiencing the effects of a good laugh, said, "No, she was just..." He caught his breath, "Never mind."

"I get it Hino-san," Jun said in a sympathetic voice. "If you've resorted to this means," he gestured at her pajamas, "I completely understand."

She rolled her eyes at him but she blushed just the same. "Anyway," she said, "why are you up so early?"

"I've tried bird watching before," Jun answered with a shrug. "You have to wake up early if you want to try to find them all." And he added, while speaking behind his hand as if he meant for only Kaho to hear him, "Just some advice Kahoko-san, you would have been more effective with red pajamas instead of blue ones. I've seen it in documentaries—birds with these big red what's-it-called on their necks—more attractive to the opposite gender."

She wished she had interrupted him before he'd started comparing them to birds but she wasn't about to tell Len's grandfather to shut up even if she was tempted. He was still a senior citizen—an elder—even if he didn't look the part at the moment.

Len didn't comment and Kaho knew he was pretending not to hear.

"Actually," Jun said, sobering up,"I just wanted to ask you two before I leave if you've seen my wallet. When I woke up this morning, I went thru my coat pocket and it wasn't there."

"Your wallet is the first thing you check in the morning?" Kaho asked.

"No, no, I forgot to check last night, you know, after meeting Ruriko-san," he said a bit shyly but regained his usual confident tone in a heartbeat. "Yes, after I met Ruriko-san, I forgot about my wallet and the Jazz Festival tickets which were inside. When I woke up this morning, I told myself that I had to check if they were still there. I was already worried they wouldn't be. Maybe it was some sort of precognition."

"Where did you last see it?" Len asked.

"At the train station after I got my soda and before this shady looking guy bumped into me," Jun answered. "He seemed drunk," he added.

"It must have been him!" Kaho interjected. "The thief who stole Ruriko's shoulder bag!"

"You know, I think I remember him bumping into her and she almost lost her balance," Jun said speculatively. "They were a few steps behind me and I hadn't seen either of their faces. I thought about heading back to you guys but I stopped just before turning away, I just had the urge to check if she was really there and if she had already collected herself. She just looked so slight...But she was gone and I didn't know where to or why that bothered me." Jun sounded as though he had been enchanted by the mystery of Ruriko's presence, or maybe her sudden absence, even when he hadn't yet seen her face. "I kept looking because something told me I should look for her but, in the end, she just re-appeared with you two and well...I..."

"I started to imagine the rest of my life with her," he said unabashedly. "I know Len, we're sixteen but you had the guts to find Hino-san here and I think I want a chance at romance too. If I fail at it, I'd go down in flames—that way I have an experience to write about in a composition, right?"

Kaho was getting used to Jun, the line 'had the guts to elope' crossed her mind and she was thankful that he hadn't thought of it or, maybe, hadn't said it. But had he heard them talk about the piece Len composed and was actually hinting at it instead?

"Go to the police and get your wallet back," Len said impassively.

"Isn't it too early in the morning?" Kaho asked.

"Have you had breakfast?" Len asked Jun.

"Not yet," Jun said, rubbing his stomach. "Does Hino-san know how to make a good omelette?"

Kaho had no objections. She had a roof over her head because of his generosity. "All right," she agreed. "Give me a few minutes to shower and change."

It was awkward to have both of them dressed like 'young affluent gentlemen' and have her cooking their breakfast while she was in pajamas.

"I think," Jun whispered in her ear before they left the room, "you should just change into red ones."

.

.

As soon as Jun had shut the front door, Kaho ran to a nearby window to watch him disappear into the city. "I think we should follow him," she said to Len who was sitting on the living room couch.

"My thoughts exactly," Len said. "It's a Saturday and unless there are special club meetings, the school will be empty."

"And," Kaho continued for him, "Jun will take it as the perfect opportunity to find Lili."

They exchanged looks of anticipation. She didn't want to temper her hopes—she grinned at Len—they were going to go home soon.

_What's a few hours of waiting?_

Lili was going to make it possible.

.

.

.

_Music mentioned in this chapter:_

_I had the piece "Song from a Secret Garden" by Secret Garden in mind when I wrote the second half of this chapter. I wanted it to be Len's composition, of course for Kaho— but she isn't aware of this. I had the option of just letting him give her the score, not claim it as his own because it isn't, and encourage her to practice with it. But I went ahead and let this fic have him compose a song for her. _

_It's fun to listen to different versions of a classical piece. There's Django Reinhardt's cool jazz version of Liebestraum and there's Spike Jones' crazy one with the funny lyrics and pig noises. I swear there's pig noises._

_I recommended that you listen to the music in this chapter as well as the other pieces in the previous ones :)_

_._

_Etc:_

_Jun is a bit mad, isn't he?_ _I planned for him to be more naive originally but he enjoys teasing Kaho and Len too much._


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Kaho and Len followed Jun to the police station. They trained their eyes on the station's entrance and waited for Jun to come out, watching patiently from behind the glass display case of a store across the street. It didn't take long—under thirty minutes—before he emerged. He looked sullen. They guessed from his expression that his wallet hadn't been recovered and that the precious Jazz festival tickets were lost to him permanently. They watched Jun pocket his hands and look to the sky as if expecting rain.

Careful not to be discovered, they trailed behind him like two spies, though Kaho did more of the ducking. Len claimed that Jun was distracted and kept a safe distance, not really taking to hiding behind statues or slipping into alleys while they followed him. They saw Jun enter Seisou's gate and worried that he would catch them once they were in the courtyard but Jun hadn't stopped to check behind him. He was distracted, just as Len had said.

"He's looking for Lili," Kaho said as they followed him to the back of the school.

"Do you think he's going to find him?" Len asked. He had converted to Kaho's way of thinking and hid with her behind a large tree.

"I hope he does," Kaho answered. She watched Jun do his version of something she'd done yesterday. One by one he checked the bushes. She wasn't close enough to hear him but he was probably whispering "Lili" and trying not to feel crazy while doing it.

A loud crash distracted all three and Jun headed for the direction of the noise. Kaho and Len exchanged looks before running after him.

.

.

Ruriko was soaking wet. An empty bucket lay, like used ammunition, beside her small frame. Another girl peered from a second floor window and laughed.

"Ooops, sorry," she said in a sing-song voice. She had a friend, another bully, who laughed beside her.

Ruriko said nothing. She stood motionless, her wet hair like a curtain covering her face. Jun rushed to her side, while Kaho and Len watched silently.

"Those bullies," Kaho said angrily. She felt Len's hand on her arm and he shook his head as if to say, 'don't interfere'.

The two girls had left their spot by the window and Jun was beside Ruriko, who stared at him blankly.

"We should get you dry," Jun said, the concern evident in his voice.

Kaho realized that Jun would have to go back in the direction he came and before she and Len could find a better hiding place, Jun had reached them. He lifted his brows in surprise.

"Hey there!" Kaho said in a cheerful voice. "We were just..."

"We were looking for you," Len interrupted, providing no explanation.

"Oh, ok," Jun said, confused. He had an arm around Ruriko's wet shoulder. "We'll go find some towels," Jun said, returning his attention to the situation at hand.

The quartet climbed the stairs to the second floor, hoping to get towels in the school infirmary. Jun turned the doorknob and, thankfully, it opened. The infirmary was accessible for such situations (she remembered the instance when Tsuchiura had tended to his own wounds) and only the doctor's office was locked.

Kaho checked Ruriko for any bumps on the head and proclaimed there were none after a minute's inspection. She leaned on the doorframe, while Jun got a chair for Ruriko. Len stood beside Kaho at the door.

"I'm sorry," Ruriko said softly. "I don't know why I attract the wrong kind of attention."

Before she could comment, Kaho spotted the two bullies near the stairs.

"Hey you!" she shouted, chasing after them. "Come back here and apologize!"

She heard Len shout her name but paid him no mind. She ran after the girls who had crossed the newly built bridge between Gen Ed and the Music School.

The Gen Ed building was dusty and still housed the clutter from the recently finished construction. The smell of paint, cement, and wood shavings mixed in the air. She wrinkled her nose and searched for the delinquents who had terrorized Ruriko. She reached a corner and—splash! She was drenched with water. Her skin was suddenly cold and the jolt from the change in temperature caused her to step back. Splash again! Water had hit her from behind and she shivered. She slipped on the wet floor, landing inelegantly on her bottom.

"Serves you right!" said the girls before running off. Both carried an empty bucket in her hands.

"_Itai..._"

She reached behind her and massaged her bottom. _Two buckets!_ _They soaked me twice!_ She tucked her wet hair behind her ear and tried to stand up. Len appeared beside her to help.

"Hino," he said, sounding parental. "I told you not to interfere."

"You didn't tell me," she said, allowing him to support her weight. "You only signalled with your eyes."

He took her hand and examined it closely. "I remember something similar happened when you tried to defend me," he said. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No, I'm ok," she reassured him. "And it was you who got wet that time not me."

They smiled at the shared remembrance. "You're such a busybody," he said with a sigh. "As long as nothing's broken," he eyed her again.

"I'm ok, I promise," she said, taking the first step forward. She'd attempt to do jumping jacks except she was afraid to slip a second time.

"Don't jump around," he said tiredly, as if he had read her mind. "Let's go back before they think we got lost."

When they returned to the infirmary, Ruriko was drinking tea from a pet bottle and Jun offered them both of the same beverage. Len handed Kaho a towel.

"They're members of the Oke club," Ruriko explained. "I've been a member since first year. They were nice to me then."

"It changed when you were selected for the concours," Len said.

He was right, as Kaho and Jun later found out thru Ruriko's story. Ruriko had been bullied by the other girls because they were jealous. They said she wasn't worthy and that her family must have used its clout to enter her in the competition. Kaho couldn't help but think of Len; it had been the same for him when he joined the concours.

"It's their issue not yours," Len said to Ruriko. "They know they're stooping down when they try to sabotage you and since they're willing to pay this price, you shouldn't give them their satisfaction and allow them to take what's important to you. You can't let them affect your performance. You can't give them what they want."

Kaho squeezed Ruriko's shoulder, "He's right."

She smiled at Jun and added, "And if they do it again, you can always tell Jun-san here. He'll be around to support you."

Ruriko turned towards Jun. "Thank you," she said.

"Yeah," was all Jun could reply.

"It's no problem," Kaho said, as if support Jun and add to his reply. She'd assumed he would be more talkative around Ruriko.

_He's probably nervous..._

"I have to return to Oke club practice," Ruriko said, getting up from her chair.

"Will you be ok?" Kaho asked.

"Yes," Ruriko answered, giving Kaho a tired smile. "It's unusual for a pianist to join an Oke club but our seniors were kind and allowed me to sit in. I was more like an honorary member but now I finally get to perform with them because of the piano concerto. I'm really looking forward to it."

"Ok. We'll accompany you," Kaho offered.

"No, no, it's fine," Ruriko said. "I can manage."

When she was half-way out the door, she thanked them again, bowed, and left hurriedly.

"She's good at running off isn't she," Kaho said.

"Yeah," Jun agreed. His tone implied that Ruriko wasn't running towards the direction he preferred.

Kaho was about to ask him how their conversation went when Jun made a strangled noise. His face had frozen. Kaho followed his line of sight and there it was—the apparition, the ghost of the infirmary, no, the ghost of the school, sometimes mistaken for the fairy that lived in it.

Jun's eyes darted from Kaho, to Len, to Lili. And Lili, just like the time with Kaho, Mio and Nao said: "They can't see me. We're not on the..."

But she had made eye contact with him and Lili knew instantly it wasn't an accident. Kaho, struck by a new idea said, "Wavelength."

"We're not on the same wavelength," she said to Lili, looking directly into his eyes. Later, if he needed proof that they had met before she would use this moment and mention that she was able to finish his sentence for him. He had to believe her.

"Hino," Len said, his tone betraying not even a hint of surprise, "I can see him too."

"_What_?"

Confetti erupted and Kaho, for the third time that day, was drenched—this time by a colourful spray of tiny squares. Lili floated and flipped and flew in front of Jun, then Len, then Kaho. He smiled broadly.

"You can see me!" he said with the brightest smile. "Three people at once can see me!"

She could already predict what he was going to say: 'You must join the concours!'

But this time, since she and Len weren't enrolled in the school (aside from the fact that they were from the future), she had to tell him they weren't eligible. She was about to beat Lili to his announcement by negating it when he landed on her shoulder. He looked at her with starry eyes; he glowed pink, then purple, then blue, then green, which Kaho took to mean that he was very _very_ happy.

"A girl!" he said happily. "You're a girl!"

"Um..." Kaho didn't know what to say. "I think I look the part."

"It's the first time a girl has seen me!"

"Ahh," Jun said. "It sounds like fate."

.

.

Lili retold the story of how he had helped the school's founder and all the while she had the impression that he was talking only to her and that it was her he wanted to listen to him.

"What's your name?" he asked Kaho.

"Hino Kahoko," she said. "And this is Tsukimori Len, Jun's cousin."

"I see, I see," Lili said, not taking his eyes away from Kaho. Jun and Len watched them with interest, intrigued by Lili and his reaction to Kaho. Kaho frowned, Lili flew around her in circles, making her dizzy.

"Hino Kahoko," he said. "I have a request."

She dreaded what it was. "Er, what is it Lili?" she said, trying to keep her face straight.

He flew to the side of her head and whispered in her ear. Kaho's eyes grew wide.

"You need me for what?"

.

.

.

_Manga references/Promotion for La Corda:_

_Chapter 5: Kaho saves Len from some bullies and drenches him with water from a vase in the process. This was done in Episode three of the anime._


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

They could hear the Oke club's practice. Jun identified the piece as _Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1_ and said the music reminded him of hard labour and, with Ruriko's rendition, of heartbreak too. Kaho thought that Lili's request, if put to music, wouldn't depict the same but since it was Lili who had asked, his favor might be just a little more than she expected.

"Do fairies have fashion shows?" Jun asked no one in particular. Lili had called it 'research' that he needed help with and they stayed in the clinic because Lili needed Kaho to _try out dresses he'd made with magic_.

"Are you helping Coco Chanel or another famous designer?" Kaho asked. "Because you can get models..."

"I don't know who that is," Lili said, his brow furrowed. He was still circling her, probably making calculations about her measurements.

"Is this a hobby of yours?" Kaho tried again.

"Are you joining a competition?" Jun said, trying to guess for himself. "Hey, I could be right," he said to Len.

Lili had been studying Kaho carefully but he had sighed and floated to the window sill. He stared out the window for a brief moment before facing them, "Ok, like you have the concours, we fairies have competitions too..."

"Aha!" said Jun.

"What do you do in magic competitions?" Kaho asked.

"You know Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty right, Hino Kahoko?" Lili started to explain. "Cinderella's godmother gave her a gown to wear to the ball and Sleeping Beauty's fairy godmothers made her a dress out of magic. I'm supposed to learn that too or I won't qualify for the contest."

Kaho nodded, finally understanding Lili's joy at having found a female human that could see him. _Were the fairy godmothers their icons?_

"Does it have to be women's clothing?" she asked, earning a look from both boys.

"Yes," Lili sighed. "The girls have an unfair advantage because their humans are girls and a fairy is usually seen by a human of the same gender. I haven't had anyone to practice with. I need your pointers Hino Kahoko."

"You'll help right, Hino Kahoko?" Lili made puppy eyes at her. His eyes seemed to have grown bigger and bluer.

She knew she would the moment he had asked.

"How could I refuse?" she answered, echoing a reply she had made not a long time ago.

.

.

At first she felt like a cupcake: she was the filling and the layers of taffeta a combination of fondant and frosting that overpowered the cake, which was whatever classic style the dress was supposed to help the wearer embody. Lili definitely needed the practice.

And then Lili started to get more creative. He put her in a sky blue gown embroidered with orange fish and sea green and azure waves. The fish leapt out of the waves and back in again, so the beading actually altered itself like an animated aquarium.

"That's amazing," Jun said. He clapped and even Len was transfixed by the moving fish.

Lili bowed. "Thank you. But I have something even better."

The next gown was designed like a patchwork quilt. Musical instruments decorated the patches. She had a wide brimmed hat that matched cranberry-colored elbow length gloves and a broach in the shape of a gramophone. She twirled and the gramophone broach started to release every sound from every musical instrument patch on the dress. It was an out of tune orchestra playing who-knows-what or maybe several pieces at the same time.

"Make it stop Lili," Kaho said. Len and Jun tried to block the noise by covering their ears. The volume got lower, then went up again. "Change the dress!"

"Ok, what do you think of this!"

With a wave of Lili's wand, Kaho changed into a bonnet decorated with miniature pink flamingos and a pink ballgown with a skirt that reminded her of a feather duster. A large flamingo was draped around her neck like a shawl.

"Well this is..." She nearly fell over. The flamingo shawl squawked! "Gah! It's real!"

"Sorry, Hino Kahoko," Lili said. The angry looking flamingo was engulfed in a cloud of pink before disappearing. A second later, the little ones on her hat disentangled themselves and flew toward the window.

"Flying flamingos...," Jun said. "Flying dwarf flamingos..."

"What are you going to do about those?" Len asked about the escaped minis. He had closed the window in time to prevent one miniature from flying into the courtyard. It collided with the glass and disappeared in a cloud of pink.

Lili waved his hand and forced a smile. "They'll go away soon."

Kaho caught the 'I think' Lili said under his breath. She hoped for him that they would.

"Have you tried looking at fashion magazines?" Kaho asked, changing the topic before they really worried about the anomalous flamingos. "Is that allowed?"

"I think your best bet is the aquarium dress," Jun said, giving his verdict. "If I may, can I make a suggestion?"

Jun whispered in Lili's ear, pointing at Len. Another swish of Lili's magic wand and Kaho had a new outfit.

"What is this?"

"A wedding dress," Jun said with a laugh. He looked at Len who ignored him and then at Kaho who blushed. Lili had chosen a gown with a heavy beaded skirt and she wasn't sure if it was flattering.

"How about real doves for this one?" Jun said. "You can make them change color when they fly off."

"That's a great idea!" Lili said. He was about to make Jun's suggestion real when Kaho held up her hand.

"Please no," she said. "We don't want multicoloured doves flying around the campus."

"It'll be ok," Jun said. "They're doves not flamingos. If it was me and I saw the birds from the courtyard, I'd wonder who had the time to dye the feathers."

"Can she keep this for future use?" Jun asked Lili. "It might not be long before she'll get to wear it."

"Jun-san," Kaho pleaded. "For the last time, Tsukimori-kun and I aren't a couple!"

"Did I mention you were a couple? I didn't say you were marrying him, right? I didn't say you guys eloped either," he said, as if forgetting that he'd been teasing her about it since they met. "But if you did elope, you can keep the dress and augment your budget for when you do decide to get married. I know it can be difficult while you're starting out." His speech finished, Jun turned to Lili casually, "Do you agree?"

"Lili, please get me out of this dress..."

"Hmm," Lili stroked his chin and flew over and around Kahoko. "Let's try this again, Hino Kahoko..."

She couldn't believe it, was Lili playing along? Alarmed, she turned towards her only possible comrade in the room and begged for help with her eyes.

"Go with it, Hino," Len advised. "It'll be over soon."

"A wedding dress is the most important dress a girl will wear in her lifetime," Lili said with conviction.

"Right!" Jun said excitedly. Kaho glared at him.

Jun continued to tease, "Why not take a page out of Len's book and go with the flow? It's a practical tack." And then, "Go with the flow Hino-san," Jun intoned comically. "And besides, the idea of getting together with him isn't that unpleasant is it? He's not that bad. You know that from living with him."

She glared at Jun. "Yes, but..."

She trailed off. _But, what?_ If she had more to say she didn't know how to begin. It wouldn't be about Jun teasing her but about her feelings. Her eyes widened. There was a sound, like a coin dropping to the floor.

_Penny for your thoughts?_

She hadn't had the time to pick it up. It seemed she had to stop and take a few steps back.

"Enough," Len spoke finally. "She feels indebted to us and is sensitive about it. I know that neither you nor I expect something in return but our situation is the kind that can make anyone a little self-conscious. So, can this stop? Can we move on?"

Jun sighed. "Ok, _mea culpa_," he said, keeping a hand on his breast, "I wave the truce flag."

Kaho was silent. Len had, with his cool assessment of their set-up, put her back on track. They had to go home and she had a plan to get them there. If she was right they were now in the perfect mood for her plan to work.

"Lili, can I speak to you for a moment." She added, "In private."

.

.

She led Lili to the bridge so no one could hear them. "I can't mention the favor I want to ask with Jun in the room but there's something you have to know. You and I have met before Lili." She breathed. "Ok, I have to make this clear— what I mean is, you _will _meet me," she said, pausing to make sure Lili would pay attention to her next words, "Lili, I'm from the future."

She let Lili take it in. He was quiet, so she waited.

"EHHHHHH?" he shouted and made a crazy beeline in the air.

"Please, not so loud!"

"You're from the future," he whispered, coming in close until he filled her vision.

"Yeah," she said, taking a step back. "I'm Hino Kahoko and you will force me to join the concours many, many years from now. It's why I can see you Lili, we're on the same wavelength. You told me so yourself. That's why I knew what you were going to say when you spoke to Jun just a little while ago."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Please, Lili. I need you to get home! Tsukimori-kun and I need you," she said. "We don't belong in the 1950's and Jun-san is actually Tsukimori-kun's grandfather. We have to get back, Lili! Tsukimori-kun has to go to Vienna to study music. He's been here two weeks and I don't know if he's missed his flight or if his parents think he's missing. I haven't graduated from high school! Our parents could be really worried! We have to return!"

"Oh..."

"Yes," she said. "Lili you're the one who pushed me to join the concours. You gave me a magic violin and told me I was special. I didn't believe you then but now, I think you're right. I am special. Please believe me Lili, I need your help."

"Did you say I forced you join the concours?"

"Yes, a little like what happened with Jun-san."

"Hmmm," Lili contemplated. "That does sound like me..."

Hope sparked inside her, "Will you help us?"

She had another ace and it was in her pocket. She showed him the picture from the Jazz Festival. "This is how Tsukimori-kun got here," she said. "It's a picture of his grandparents at a Jazz Festival. See, there's a banner in the photo. I'm in the picture too, there in the background. When Tsukimori-kun saw my face in the photo, he was suddenly transported here. He arrived two weeks ahead of me. I got here through another photo— it was of a boy who looked exactly like him, at least that's what I thought before I met Tsukimori-kun here—in 1958. This picture," she said, bringing the photo closer to Lili's face, "hasn't been taken yet. If you ask Jun he'll tell you that he lost the tickets to the Jazz Festival, but since I have this photo it means he got to go and that I was there too. I can't have this if I'm not from the future."

"It's true," Len said, appearing behind Lili. He was trying to catch his breath.

"What happened? Where's Jun-san?" Kaho asked.

"The flamingos came back," Len said. "They tried to attack Jun."

"Where is he? Is he ok?"

"It ran after him," Len explained. "When he threw things at the flamingos, they merged into a larger flamingo the size of a volleyball. It bounced after Jun and followed him to the first floor."

"We should go find him," Kaho said. She imagined a flamingo ball with beak and feathers chasing Jun like a scary gryphon.

"I told him to hide until I found you two," Len said. "I hope he heard because I only had time to shout it from the top of the stairs when he had already made his way down."

Len continued, "I think we should talk about how we can get home—quickly, before my grandfather needs saving."

"Are you sure?" Kaho asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Len said. "Please believe us," he said to Lili. "Our futures depend on it."

Lili had been poised to make a quick decision. "All right," he said. "I'll help you. If you two are really from the future it should work."

Lili explained that he had to open a portal for them and that this would be done at a certain time and had to be done at a certain place—Seisou, actually. For Lili, Seisou was his "power source". He can't leave the school.

Kaho thought it would be sooner—or, if she had to be honest, right after convincing Lili. Lili said they had to wait a few more days before she could get home. The night of the Jazz Festival, as it turned out.

"You're taking this well," Kaho said to Len.

"I've waited two weeks," he said. "I've had enough time to think about being stuck here til I become senile so I appreciate that we'll be leaving in a few days time."

"I thought it would be much sooner..." she admitted. "I have a question, when we go back will we have missed some days?"

"No. But you might end up somewhere hours before you time travelled."

"Ok. So I have to repeat a few hours?"

"At worst, yes."

"So, at best?"

"You'll end up exactly where you were before you were sucked in."

"That's good news," Len said.

"I'll be back in my grandmother's attic," she said.

"Why were you in an attic?" Len asked.

If she told him she'd been cleaning, he'd ask why she'd clean a scary attic at night because, according to his timeline, that would be the time of day. She couldn't answer him. She had a secret to keep and she feared what she might reveal if she answered his question. When they heard Jun scream, Lili transported them to the first floor.

Jun's hair stood on its ends, literally. The flamingo ball had created static while it tried to pick at his roots. He had backed up against a window.

"Get it off me!" he screamed.

Lili did but not before they could laugh at his mad scientist hair. Jun fell backwards and onto the lawn with a loud thump which was followed by a feminine shriek. Ruriko's bullies came into view.

"Ouch!" one of the girls said. "You stepped on my foot!"

"It's his fault," said the second girl, blaming Jun.

Len, Kaho and Lili observed the spectacle from the window. Jun got up, collided with the girls, and ended up sprawled on the ground for the second time. Kaho heard Lili giggle.

"Lili?" Kaho asked.

"What's this, what, why," Jun started to stammer, "why am I in a boy's uniform?"

"I'm wearing a skirt!"

"This isn't me! Why am I looking at my own face?"

"Your face? My hair is short!" Jun shouted, shaking one of the girl's shoulders. "I'm a boy!"

Kahoko glared at Lili. _Obviously his handiwork_. "Change them back, Lili."

The little prankster had a wicked gleam in his eye. "Hee, hee, hee."

"I mean it Lili," Kaho warned.

"What a mess," Len said.

"Give me my body back!" Jun screamed, marching towards the girl who was pulling down on her skirt.

"Wait! You'll hurt him! Er, yourself!" said one of the girls. She wrapped her arms around Jun's waist.

They ended up in another heap. Jun was sandwiched in the middle and removed himself from under the deadweight of an unconscious body. Both girls looked like they had fallen asleep.

"We can't leave them like that can we?" Jun asked Lili. He frowned. "What was with the body switching anyway?"

Lili did a double peace sign, "Just a little fun."

Jun didn't get angry, only glanced at Kaho as if to cue her to her part. Kaho already had her arms crossed against her chest and she noted the glance. If it meant that it was her role to be upset, she was only just a little and if she was going to act a certain way it would be like a 'big sister'

"Lili," she said, "can we at least transfer them somewhere?"

"It'll be ok if they wake up in the practice rooms," Len suggested.

Lili bowed. "Your wish is my command."

Kaho thought there would have been a pending comical scenario if Jun hadn't shrugged off the body switching and the same Lili continued to apologize with a Cheshire cat's grin. But Jun 'didn't mind a lot when it shouldn't bother him' and enjoyed anything out of the ordinary (he had said so during breakfast and described Kaho's relationship with Len as definitely un-ordinary). Magic, of course and by default, was enjoyable and entertaining. Jun watched in amazement as Lili caused the girls to disappear in a ball of light, while Kaho looked plaintively at Len who he echoed her thoughts:

"I wish it were as easy to get home."

.

.

.

_Music mentioned in this chapter:_

_Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 – composed in 1875, this piece was used in the movie "Misery", an adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same title. I think Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto 1 might be too ambitious ...Jun should be more impressed with the school Oke and with Ruriko too._

_Author's side comment:_

_I enjoyed writing about Kaho's dresses. It's fun to put a little magic here and there. If I could, I would draw this chapter and the previous one too...for some parts, I would prefer a manga version of this story._


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_Later that night..._

Kaho studied the Ruriko and Jun that were immortalized in the photo in her hand. Jun had his arm around Ruriko and a silly smile on his face. Ruriko actually flashed a peace sign. She studied her own face too, which was in profile, and though it had strangely faded since last she laid eyes on it, she knew that it was her face that the lens had captured.

"It must have been the water," she thought, running a fingernail over her features. The drenching she had received earlier got the photo wet.

"It won't be long," she said to the Kaho in the photo. "I'm going back soon."

Only a few more days and she was going to return to her own house and sleep in her own bed. She just had to appear at the time Lili had appointed.

"_Midnight, just like Cinderella," Lili had said with an impish grin._

She placed the photo on her nightstand and got ready for bed.

.

.

_It was the echo of a memory._

"_...wasting time and effort," she said._

_She knew that in a moment, his response would reach her heart and squeeze. It was déjà vu but instead of the bridge that separated Gen Ed and the Music School, darkness was the support beneath their feet and the backdrop against which her ego would dissolve. They were on a stage and he was illuminated by a spotlight._

_She'd remember his face forever._

_The words she'd spoken had created an invisible barrier that denied access to him, and she couldn't speak when more words could be bricks to fortify the wall that separated them. She feared what would happen if she tried to break the silence and stood lamely as the darkness, born out of his anger and disappointment and her regret and fear of rejection, encroached._

"_You think you can take back those words just like that?" he said with an icy voice. _

_It was real—that sharp prick that hurt her heart was real. She had been sensitized to the pain he could inflict and she knew what she would feel before he had finished speaking._

"_You made me very disappointed."_

_Her eyes followed his back as he retreated. No, he wasn't retreating—she had nothing she could hurl at him so he wasn't leaving to care for his wounds._

_She was the wounded one and she hated to see him disappear to a place where she could not go. She wanted to call out to him but she struggled to find her voice. She tried to speak, to cry out, but her mouth was useless as she sank slowly, inevitably, into the black ink spill around her. For a blessed moment, it was as if she were viewing the night sky through an aperture. When the aperture closed completely, her eyes registered the absence of light. And in complete darkness, hope trickled away—_

.

.

Kaho thought she had heard herself scream. She felt a pillow underneath her head and her hands automatically grabbed at her blankets as if to confirm that everything else was in place and that she had been dreaming. She blinked her eyes open and released a frustrated sigh.

In the Tsukimori mansion, or in 1958, memories were more vivid when given a steroid boost as a dream. Then again, her dreams had never been her co-conspirators. In her dreams, the things she jettisoned to the back of her mind floated back to where they could bump her shins.

She frowned and pulled herself into sitting position. Grabbing her pillow, she squeezed it as tight as her arms would allow. It wasn't fair. Her ego should have chafed at the edges. It should have bristled at the effect his words had on her. She should have been angry at him...Shouldn't she? He had made her feel at fault when she had only been honest.

The frustrations she had released from her heart that terrible day had been a short exhale—only a brief moment because she had held back. She didn't think she had to apologize for it. She'd been struggling and maybe he shouldn't have been the one to hear her confidence unbuckle because he hadn't tried to comfort her and she hadn't expected him to. She had been careless. But he didn't understand.

_It hurt that he was so far away..._

When his words had hit, they slashed through her senses like the resounding and horrible snap of the strings of her violin when they had broken. If someone had seen them, would they have known what to do? She had disappointed him and she saw herself holding on to that disappointment. Her pride should have protested but it didn't have the energy. She'd hung her head and stayed silent.

He had made her feel like she deserved nothing before and, after the second incident, she wondered if it would happen again and if she'd have another regret.

_That is if he wants to see me again..._

The Len Tsukimori with her now didn't know about the strain in their relationship. It was her secret to keep but if he'd been the Len who was angry at her, how would he have been different?

She knew it would make her lonely but if he had ignored her, he still thought about her—about how she had upset him. She wouldn't have his sympathy, that was true, but disappointment, though it was ugly, was still a feeling that connected her to him despite the rupture. The taste of salty tears made her close her eyes and she suddenly, desperately, wished that _he_ could make her feel disappointed. It was unfair and she wanted to complain...to whom, she didn't know, but she had to think about it: She had looked past Len's arrogance and forgiven him for the times he had been harsh to her, to Tsuchiura, and the others. He didn't sugar-coat or soften his unsympathetic opinions but every time she was a witness to the trouble he got into because of his ..._er_, _lack of finesse_, she had defused the situation and had even defended him. She won back people for him too: she'd helped get his accompanist back before the fourth selection.

And she could still smile at him after a 'This has nothing to do with me,' or a 'You sound like a drunkard'.

She wanted to laugh. She shook her head and flopped on the bed, her stomach flat on the mattress. _I'm crazy..._

She smiled at his personality quirks and even if she had been crying a moment ago there was now a smile that tugged at her lips. She accepted him and she moved on quickly because he was quick to move on too. It wasn't as if she overlooked his faults—he had to be reminded how he could provoke others, even if he wasn't the type to do it intentionally. He wasn't always right, especially when it came to navigating around other people's feelings.

It was a neat rationalization and she congratulated her fully awake mind which had just registered the time on the clock that sat on her nightstand—it was already two in the morning. She didn't close her eyes or attempt to fall asleep but watched the clock, mesmerized by the second hand as it swept the numbers. She thought about Len who, of course, was sleeping in his room. She imagined him with his head on a pillow, with his eyes closed and his long lashes casting shadows on his cheeks...

_Tsukimori-kun..._She sighed.

He was...awkward. And he could be insensitive. But...he felt right. Yes, maybe, on her instincts she knew that he...

_He feels right..._

She squeezed her pillow against her chest. She still couldn't shake off the dream she'd had and how it reminded her of how he'd hurt her. She had let him down but he didn't know how each word he'd said had stayed with her and seemed to expand with her lungs with each breath she took. He didn't know how she mourned that he could be so final and judge so uncompromisingly when...

_When..._

And here she stopped her thoughts before they could reach full circle or make a bull's eye that her myopic self could only hit at close range. She was starting to feel crazy again. _No, Kaho. It's not what you're thinking_. He could be rude and unsociable. And he wasn't perfect. But she accepted his imperfections. And she respected and admired him...

She...

_I..._

Catching her breath, she turned to lie on her back as she felt her ribs pushing down on her heart. Her feelings had once again become translated into real, physical pain, and were demanding that she acknowledge them. A few deep breaths didn't help but she still hoped the ache would leave.

_Stop it Kaho, what are you thinking!_

She tried but it was too late, she couldn't un-think the snapshots in her head. They were of him—an entire album of talking polaroids she hadn't known she'd started. She was going to have to tell herself and her traitorous body what she had just realized. But she wasn't going to be dramatic. She had to be sober.

Somehow, the idea of being sober led to him too and to her promise to chase after him.

_Chasing after him..._

It was as if thoughts of him chased after _her _as her dream-diluted self sat in front of him at breakfast. It was a nice morning and she was comfortable. She was secure. She was...a little drowsy. She had been up all night and her lack of sleep explained the drowsy feeling. But she had imagined strings that pulled her eyes half closed and her lips into a tiny smile and she didn't know whether the strings were anchored in her or in him.

No, it wasn't him. Because he was _himself _and unlike his practice schedule the effect he had on her wasn't something he controlled.

He poured tea for her and she started to watch his hands. Her eyes followed his fingers as he spread jam on bread, sliced eggs..etc. His hands were as graceful with ordinary tasks as they were when playing the violin.

They drank from their teacups at the same time.

"Is something wrong Hino?"

_Not with you. Nothing's wrong with you._

She liked their quiet breakfast and though she should be excited now that they had a 'date of departure', as she liked to think of it in her head, she didn't want to go back to a future where he wasn't around to pour her tea. He was still waiting for her to respond and maybe it was her face that told him to be patient but his patience wouldn't make her give him an answer. At least not the one that mattered to her.

"You have graceful hands," she said.

He blinked. "Ah, thank you."

"Uh huh," she replied. They had more hours together because they were waiting for Lili to gather enough energy to send them home. This meant she'd have the time to notice everything she liked about him and probably even comment, silently, to herself, as if she were making a collection of observations as a keepsake or maybe she'd say them aloud in short sentences. If he stayed long enough to hear, he'd wonder if she'd assigned herself the task of compiling a list of his best attributes—the reason for starting one, of course, a mystery to him.

So this was how she was at accepting feelings. She enjoyed being near him and she wanted to treasure their time together.

_1958. Good breakfast. Lovely company._

She'd write the words on a post card. And if she could, mail it straight to his heart.

.

.

.

_Manga references/Promotion for La Corda:_

_Chapter 40: the announcement of the theme for the 4__th__ selection—'The Irreplaceable' (Priceless in the Viz translation); Len has trouble with his accompanist who walks out after a usual Len Tsukimori remark._


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_The next few days..._

Kaho practiced daily with the violin that Len had given her. It was cherry red, like her own violin back at home, and probably belonged to a (real) cousin of Jun's. She was learning Len's piece but hadn't allowed him to hear her play. Len had said that he didn't mind if she couldn't play it perfectly and that he wanted to listen but she'd insisted that he wait until she felt it was right.

"_I'm going to knock your socks off," she had said to him._

"_Ok, I expect you will."_

After Len brought Kaho to the place where he tutored, she accompanied him on two more occasions. She practiced there too and had even helped the kids with their stance and bowing. She met his employer, Mrs. M, a kind woman who looked about Kaho's mother's age. That first day—a few minutes into her acquaintance with Kaho—Mrs. M had suggested that Len play something for them and was his accompanist on the piano. Len chose Dvorak's_ Romance for Piano and Violin, Op. 11_.

To Kaho's ears, it was a soothing but melancholy lullaby. That it had made her feel comforted and yet sad brought back memories of the night before Len left for Vienna—when she had been nervous about her competition and felt that seeing him would help calm her down. She'd gone to the Tsukimori mansion and when she finally laid eyes on Len, had been cheerfully persistent about wanting to spend more time with him. She had experienced enough to be aware of what she still had to do and admitted that she had to rely on herself if she was serious about music but since he wasn't always going to be near, she wanted to listen to his violin and play duets while he was still in Japan.

_While they still had time..._

She remembered that just talking to him about what she wanted seemed to make her happy—maybe she got excited too easily, it wasn't something she could account for at the time—but she couldn't have guessed that his answer that night would have been an automatic and unyielding '_I can't_' no matter how she had asked.

_He waited until the last moment to tell me the truth about his departure..._

_No, he hadn't planned to tell me at all._

It made her wonder if he valued the time they spent together.

From pleasant feelings to loneliness, the switch happened after her exuberant asking and his short reply. She had been honest and he had been too with his answer: '_I can't_' may have been enough for him when he expected her to just accept where they stood. But it had hurt her more when he revealed the 'why' behind his 'I can't'.

Did he think he didn't have any obligation to tell her how soon he was leaving? She had a right to know. She was his friend, wasn't she? Back then, she had at least thought of him as someone important to her. Now that she had admitted to herself how she felt about him, she realized what had been left unsaid that night.

She didn't want a do-over. She didn't want a chance to go back and tell him her feelings. It didn't matter what year they were in, she just wanted to spend as much time with him as she could.

The beach was on their way home from Mrs. M's but they had yet to stop by so she asked Len if they could walk on the shore at least once and watch the sunset. He didn't object and when the ocean was already in their view, she removed her shoes while she was still on the warm pavement. She tiptoed to the beach. He removed his shoes only when he was at the junction between the concrete and the sand.

As they walked barefoot, she looked back at the impressions of their footprints. Seeing the prints side by side almost made her believe that she was his and he was hers. She brought her eyes around and again they met his profile.

"Do you do everything neatly?" she asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the way you eat..." she began. "It's so, um, dignified. Like the way you eat bananas. You stab the stem with your fork, then you roll the fork downward with the peel until you end up with a perfect little boat for scooping banana." She didn't want him to think she was rude but, she had to say it: "Who eats like that?"

She was teasing him after all. _Sort of. Just for fun..._

Back at Mrs. M's kitchen, they had vanilla and chocolate ice cream with the kids. He did the trick with the banana instead of eating it the usual way and hadn't placed the fruit with the ice cream and sliced it while eating. His end of the table was more quiet that hers because whenever she sliced through the banana, her spoon hit the glass.

"People who have learned how," he answered. "It's not difficult. You can try it next time."

"Next time," she said softly, almost to herself, "why don't you try something that I know how to do..."

She knew what she really meant. She wanted to know what it would be like to watch movies, go on picnics, play card games and go to festivals with him_. _These were things a couple did together and she wanted to ask him if he'd try—

_As friends,_ she thought. _If he'd try as friends..._

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"Nothing, just wondering if you would try stuff that I enjoy..."

"Like what?"

"Cooking?"

He winced. "You can help me out," he said. "I don't mind you teaching me."

They smiled at each other and she watched the light and shadows move across his profile, not noticing that she had fallen behind. He looked back and she almost expected him to extend his hand. She was fantasizing a lot recently but laughed at herself right after each fanciful thought—maybe she was just filling in the blanks, putting in her wishes when before there had only been lingering looks. She had often wondered why she loved to watch him, why she always felt especially focused on him and why she wanted him to be good to her. While that went through her head, she anticipated his attention but hadn't noticed how happy she was whenever he gave her the time of day.

_I honestly love him, _she said to herself_._

He probably didn't believe someone could find their true love at the age of sixteen and maybe he thought that other expected and planned for events were more important and took precedence (_he would use that word_, she sighed). But she believed that she loved him and that this was her story and it was about what applied to her and maybe not to him. She didn't expect to get the romantic declarations but she wanted to thank him for his music, for giving her something to aspire to...for simply existing.

_I love you_, she said to herself again.

"Jun bought clams for dinner," he said. "If you're interested, I'll teach you how to stack the shells properly."

It made her smile that he tried to sustain their teasing. "I think we're having them with noodles. Did you know instant ramen was invented in 1958?"

He nodded. "My parents took me to the Ramen Museum when I was in grade school. We ate noodles in one of the replica noodle shops they have there."

"Really..."she said. She knew about the museum. It was built in Yokohama but she hadn't visited. She only found out the trivia about instant ramen thanks to Jun who was crazy for noodles.

"My parents and I used to travel together when I was young," Len said. "They still do that now, travel a lot, I mean. We have school so I don't get to go with them as often."

"It's great that they get to spend time alone," she said. She and Len were at the water's edge letting the waves lap up their feet. "Like when they were young and should go on dates."

"I wouldn't know."

"Do you mean about your parents as a young couple or are you talking about yourself?"

"About them. I've never dated though."

_Isn't this a date?_ She wanted to say, as if to clarify things for him. She had her violin and she wanted to ask if they could play together. He might have gotten used to her asking and, she admitted, she liked that he acquiesced directly and didn't make a show out of giving in. But this was different. She wanted to play with him because she wasn't used to _his_ showing affection. Playing together would feel just like it—like a return of affection.

She admitted she was greedy.

_Maybe I have been for a while now..._

"I keep wondering what goes on in that head of yours," he said.

"I wonder what you're thinking too," she replied. "But I guess you won't tell me unless it's important right? If I have nothing to do with it then you won't tell me."

"That's true," was his short reply.

Then he said: "Are you willing to exchange? Do you have something to tell me in exchange for what I might tell you?"

"Oh," she said. "I just wanted to say that..." she hesitated. "That I enjoy spending time with you. It's kind of refreshing being here with you. It's like we're on holiday together."

Her feelings for him were in her answer—only a tiny portion that she allowed to show in her words.

"It is, isn't it?" he answered. "We wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for those photos. We're in the unknown but I don't mind. I enjoy spending time with you too. I feel like I can relax around you."

It felt like an important admission. She was happy and she wanted to make him happy too.

"I'm glad," she said. "I'm really glad you feel that way."

She grimaced suddenly and it caught his attention. Lifting her right foot, which was the source of the pain, she saw a sharp stone sticking out of the sand. He knelt, asked her to sit on the sand, and examined her foot.

"You attract injuries," he said, taking her foot and wrapping a handkerchief around it. She watched him bandage her wound and blinked back a memory of how attentive he could be when the situation seemed to call for it. She suddenly wanted to cry. It was frustrating to be on the receiving end of his kindness when she couldn't help but want more from him.

_Treat my injuries. Tutor me. Take care of me._

She loved his attention.

"Tsukimori-kun," she whispered his name. It wasn't in her voice—that unspoken acknowledgement of her feelings for him.

She was new to this and it didn't help that she wasn't like other girls. She didn't go past being objective whenever she commented on a guy's looks and hadn't imagined what it would be like to have a boyfriend. During the rare instances that she thought about romance, she had only vaguely imagined that being in love would make her feel more care free.

She hadn't expected him or any of the things that had happened between them in the past year.

"I'm sorry," she said. It was almost as if she were apologizing for her feelings. She wasn't going to tell him anyway. "I'm sorry I can't do anything for you," she said.

He frowned at her and said, "Where is this coming from Hino?"

"Are you crying?"

She didn't answer. Moments ago, she felt content.

"I don't understand you," Len said. She could hear the frustration in his voice. "But we're all right, aren't we? Weren't we just talking about that?"

"Yes," she said, finally bringing her face to meet his. She wanted to unknot his brows. "Stop frowning will you."

"You made me frown," he said.

"I'm sorry that I do," she said with narrowed eyes. "I stress you out a lot, don't I?"

"Stop apologizing and regretting what you can't do for me, whatever you think that is. I don't know what it is you expect yourself to do but I'm genuinely concerned about you and it's enough for me that you care what happens to me too. I don't expect anything in return." He paused briefly. "Tell me, what's bothering you?"

It was strange— what bothered her was that he didn't expect her feelings when she felt as if she wanted _everything_ from him. He was still kneeling in front of her.

_He can do whatever he wants to do_, she said to herself, just as long as _she_ would always be in his thoughts.

"Sometimes, I just don't understand myself," she admitted. She heard him sigh.

"I can't claim that I understand myself all the time," he said as he moved to sit beside her. "I don't think it's easy, actually. I've been confused too."

"Do I confuse you?"

He looked at her for a moment, perplexed, then smiled slowly. "I think you do."

"Why do you seem happy about it?" she said, about to grumble about how he confused _her_.

"You make me feel a lot of things," he replied. "It's not always pleasant."

Her eyes widened at his blunt admission but he continued. "I mean, I don't like being shook up...You've made me look beyond what I'd imagined for myself. I think you've made me go a little sideways, if that makes sense."

She understood what he meant. They were talking about a life's direction and she knew that he had planned his long before they had met.

"But you've always known what you wanted to do and you'll get there even if...even if I distract you, with me there is still a lot of uncertainty, I'm not as good as you are, and I think I've pulled you into that—I've made you feel unsure because you've turned out to care about me."

She thought she'd made an accurate assessment about her status and his feelings towards it but she hadn't expected his reply or her reaction to it:

"I am not unsure. Not about you," he replied quietly. "I wonder why you aren't as positive."

She looked at him, really looked at him, and thought once more that he could never disappoint her. She had the happier disposition, right? She was supposed to be the optimistic one and yet he seemed to have more faith in her than she did in herself.

"If you're about to apologize, don't," he said.

"I wasn't going to," she answered. "I was going to thank you."

"I can never thank you enough. And that's why..."she trailed off.

"It's why I will always have you in here," she said, pointing to her heart. He blinked. She smiled.

"I'll remember to be grateful to you so I don't screw up," she said. She hoped that was a good enough light remark. She wasn't about to tell him all her secrets in one sitting. _No, I'm not going to_.

"I feel like I'm going around in circles," he said wearily.

"Huh?"

"It's nothing," he said. "Is your foot ok?"

"Yes," she said, getting up. "I think we can go back now."

She extended her hand to see if he'd let her help him stand. He did and for awhile they stood close. She used the moment to admire his half-lidded gaze.

"You're fascinating, do you know that?" she said, looking into his eyes.

"I think you've made it clear several times how odd you think I am."

She raised her hand and touched his cheek, "Why?"

_What was wrong with being a little weird? _

_Why did she find him so attractive?_

He moved her hand away from his face. But she noticed he hadn't yet let go when their hands dropped to their sides. She shook her head.

"I hope I don't make you feel uncomfortable," she said.

But she knew that uncomfortable wasn't the feeling between them now. They were still holding hands and behind his head, she could see a blazing sunset.

"Do you know how lovely you are right now?" he said.

She didn't, and so she tipped her chin up and said, "I will if you make me feel it."

She didn't take her eyes away from him. They were so close their breaths intermingled.

_Almost..._

And...

"Hino," Len said, "are you ok?"

"Huh?"

"You suddenly spaced out."

She blushed. "I did?"

"Yes," he answered. "What did you mean by 'why?' by the way?"

She groaned. "Let's just go home," she said tiredly.

"Are you ok to walk?"

She tried to bear weight on her right foot. She seemed ok enough.

"Yeah," she answered.

"You can lean against me if you like," he offered.

She held on to his sleeve. "Only for a while," she said. "I really am ok."

She was the weird one with the overactive imagination. But it was ok, because Len was concerned about her and was still holding her hand.

It was the next best thing after a kiss.

.

.

One afternoon, three days prior to their departure, it rained heavily. Kaho had been sitting in the living room with Jun, waiting for Len to get home. Jun was quiet, devoting his attention to eating his cake and drinking his tea. Kaho stared out the window and listened to the heavy drops of rain that beat the roof like a drum. She wasn't sure that Len had brought an umbrella.

"You should have a towel ready," Jun said as he handed her one.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," he answered, eyeing her in between sips of his tea.

"What's wrong?" she said.

"Nothing," he shrugged. "You're just interesting to watch."

Len arrived. He opened the door and let in a gust of cold air. He had his jacket over his head, and put his violin case by the door.

"Are you ok?" she said, bringing him the towel. He was soaking wet.

"Yes," he answered. "It wouldn't stop...I couldn't miss the train home."

Jun was watching them. He wore that same look: curious and thoughtful, which he had given Kaho just moments ago.

"What?" she said again.

"Nothing. But feel free to read my thoughts. I'll count on you to eat the rest of the pastries. I'm going to go work on my own romance and practice the piano, whichever urge finds me first."

When Jun had made his exit, Len turned to Kaho and asked, "How's your practice?"

"Just a little more," she put her thumb and index finger close together, as if she held a tiny lump of sugar, "and it'll be just the way I want it."

"Good," he said. Then he sneezed.

"You should change out of your clothes."

He had tried to dry his hair and now the towel hung around his shoulders.

"Ok. I can't sit with you and get the furniture wet."

Promising to wait for him, she drank her cup of tea slowly. He had looked cold and his hands had been cold but the sight of him made her feel warm. There was a 'glow' whenever she saw him. It had been there before but she hadn't paid attention to the feeling or given it a name.

"So, I'm in love," she said because no one was around to hear. Seeing him and being around him was just like being rewarded. _Daily. Everyday_.

She placed her teacup on its saucer and watched the rain slacken its downpour. Without the steady bass of the rain, she decided she was in the mood for some background music. Getting up from the sofa, she looked through the Tsukimoris' records. One in particular caught her attention:

"_I Only Have Eyes For You_," she said aloud.

She placed the black vinyl record on the old player and let the needle brush over it like a dragonfly on water.

'_Are the stars out tonight? _

_I don't know if it's cloudy or bright_

_Cause I only have eyes for you_'

She remembered looking at Len's profile the first time she heard the song.

'_The moon may be high _

_But I can't see a cloud in the sky_

_Cause I only have eyes for you'  
><em> 

Tears started to pool in her eyes and she hated herself for being so easily affected. She'd always been looking at him and now she wondered until when she would content herself with just that.

"Do you know this song?" Len said behind her.

She nearly jumped a foot in the air. "Erm, yes," she replied.

His white dress shirt was open at the collar and his hair was still a bit damp. Her eyes followed as he walked to the sofa and drank his tea.

He was _fine_—her beating heart told her so and her hands, wanting to take orders from her heart and not her brain, lifted a fraction as though ready to reach out and fluff his hair.

"Do you want to dance?" she asked. She lifted the needle from the record, intending to replay the song.

"Hm?"

She wanted an excuse to hold him. "I think it'd be nice," she said. "I really like this song."

He would indulge her, she could feel it. They were in the 1950s and a slow dance would be just right. He stood and she held out her hand, he took it and draped it over his shoulder, he did the same with her other hand and placed his hands on her hips.

"Is this what you had in mind?" he asked as they swayed.

She didn't nod. Her eyes stayed focused on him and she thought that the more she looked at him the more her heart would swell. She was going to end up a hopeless romantic by the end of the song.

' _I don't know if we're in a garden,_

_Or on a crowded avenue_

_You are here, so am I_

_Maybe millions of people go by_

_But the all disappear from view,_

_And I only have eyes for you'_

"You should dance more often," she said casually.

"Just swaying is easy," he said.

"Do you always want a challenge in everything?" she asked.

"I can twirl you if you like," he answered.

"If you want to..."

He did and when she was done the song ended too. She twirled away from him and he'd caught her. She looked up at his face, traced his features with her eyes and wondered how she could have stayed blind for so long.

"I didn't realize I had to catch you."

He didn't realize she wanted to be caught.

"You said you wanted a challenge," she said. He hadn't said so but she was kidding with him.

He shook his head, straightened, then let her go. "You're enough of a challenge without the dancing."

"I guess that's why you're the one I'm with," she said.

He returned to his seat and she sat next to him, grinning.

_Only you_, she said to herself.

"I know," he said.

"Eh?"

"You like me most of all," he said as though he knew it was a matter of fact. He wasn't looking at her; his attention was on the tray of pastries on the table. And before she could respond, he added, "I'm the one you bother most often. At least, that's how you look at it."

She was speechless. Did he just tell her he knew about her feelings for him?

"But I'm not bothered," he said, taking a slice of strawberry cake. "I think you've become a necessary part of my life."

"Oh..."

He smiled at her then and she felt her heartbeat quicken. "I think this experience might be useful for both of us...in the grand scheme of things."

"Are you talking about fate?"

"Yes," he said. "You and I will always be connected. At least, that's my point of view."

She smiled contentedly. His words warmed her heart. "You know, I think so too."

_Oh, he took the last slice_...There were creampuffs and gelatin too, but she preferred the strawberry shortcake.

"What is it?" Len asked.

"Nothing. I didn't think you liked sweets."

"Do you want this cake?" he said, raising his fork.

"Here," he said, moving closer and raising the fork with the slice of cake to her lips. "Say 'ah'."

"Gah!" she said.

"Hino?" Len asked, the concern obvious in his voice.

Kaho blinked, then focused on him. He hadn't moved closer and wasn't feeding her cake. Was she having another illusion?

"Yes, um..." she said hurriedly. "I'm ok." She tried to smile but it looked like a grimace.

"I'm the one who got stuck in the rain," he said. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Yeah," she answered with a sigh. If he got sick, would he let her feed him? Of course, she wouldn't be feeding him cake...

She shook her head and dragged her eyes away from his face. "I'm fine. Everything's ok."

Outside the window, clear raindrops were clinging to the tree branches. It was evening so the leaves were dark but also glossy after a shower in the rain. She turned her head when, unexpectedly, Len moved his arm around her.

"Lean on me if it'll help," he said, letting her head rest on his shoulder. "We're going home soon, don't worry," he reminded her. At those words, she almost expected him to kiss her hair.

She nodded, the movement barely perceptible, and turned her gaze back to the window. She was right—everything was ok. She was peaceful. They were both warm. While they were together, everything was just as it should be.

.

.

A day after the storm, two days before they were scheduled to leave, Kaho noticed that Len looked under the weather. She asked him about it and he told her that he didn't have a fever and he didn't have a cold. He'd examined himself in front of the mirror and was satisfied. He was a little tired but he wasn't sick.

He'd still been able to go to the cafe and play '_Stand By Me_' with Kaho and Jun. It was Jun's idea that the three of them of should play together and joined in with a guitar. Kaho liked the arrangement Jun had written and couldn't help but think of Len while reading through the lyrics. She thought of Len while they had played.

"It's beautiful," she said to Len after their performance.

"Hm?"

"It's a beautiful piece," she said, looking up at him.

If she had someone who would stand by her, she knew she could do anything.

"Inspiration can go a long way," he agreed.

"With the right person," she added, "it can bridge a thousand miles."

He smiled at her then. "I'm sure that's the case."

She opened her mouth, the words were at the tip of her tongue but she didn't have a follow-up to the 'I love you' that she wanted so much to say. She couldn't tell him yet—not when the Kaho that he would be facing when they return hadn't confessed. How would he react? How would _she_ react? It would be as if she had forgotten their time together, as if she had amnesia, and she couldn't make him go through that.

She loved him. She didn't want to hurt or confuse him. She wanted him to feel connected to her..._always_.

In time, he would know. She would tell him.

"Tsukimori-kun," she said softly. Before he could speak, she wrapped her arms around him. "Let me borrow your strength," she said. "And if you're not feeling well you can borrow some of mine too."

She hugged him tighter.

"This is why..." he began.

"Hm?" she said. He had returned her embrace.

"I said so before," he said. "You've become part of my life."

"I think you said that I'm 'necessary' to you."

He'd sounded as though he had weighed and examined and calculated before he'd said the words. He hadn't said 'I need you', she would have loved that, but he wasn't the type to blurt out feelings or say things randomly. At the same time, he was always direct.

"It's true," he answered, smiling.

"I know," she said, returning his smile.

_I know..._

.

.

It was a day prior to their departure and Len and Kaho had opted to stay in the Tsukimori mansion instead of going to Mrs. M's. Len felt off balance and had confided that he was feeling worse after Kaho caught him staring at his reflection in the hallway mirror. She'd made the phone call to Len's employer and apologized for not being able to say goodbye in person. Mrs. M understood and wished them safety on their trip back to Hokkaido (that was what Mrs. M knew about their leaving Yokohama...the 1958 version of Yokohama, at least).

Len said he looked bleached, no _pale_.

"_Bleached?_ Why 'bleached'?" he said aloud.

He told Kaho that he felt "lighter" somehow. As if he were a puzzle and parts of him had accidentally come off and the other pieces that were still intact missed those that were lost. He said he didn't even sound like himself. '_Bleached_'? And what was he doing comparing himself to a puzzle?

Kaho supposed it was a reflex but the first thing she did was place a hand over his forehead.

"You aren't warm," she told him.

"I know."

"Do you want to go to a doctor?"

He shook his head. "No. They won't find anything. I just feel strange that's all."

"Have you been sleeping well?" She steered him to a chair next to a table at the top of the stairs. They were on the second floor and it was such a big house, there was always a place to sit. She stood and watched over him.

"I probably just need some rest," he said.

"Ok."

Moments passed and Len didn't speak.

"Would you like me to play for you?" she asked. She wanted to make him feel better and maybe distract him from what he was feeling.

"You want to?"

She nodded.

They both knew it was his song she would play.

.

.

The notes were resurrected as sound but fell from the air like drops of rain. It was appropriate; she played her best and almost as though it were an effort to nurse him back to health despite feeling that she wasn't a big help. They were in the second floor sitting room which was only a few steps from where he had sat in the hallway but he was on the couch, looking exhausted.

Afterwards, he said that she had captured the subtleties within the piece and that her version would be his favourite. She hesitated to respond to his praise. He looked weak and it was more important that she help him.

"Do you want to sit or lie down?"

"I'll sit. Ah, no, I'll lie down."

"Ok."

When she reached for his shoulder it was as if she had reached for air. She tried again. Nothing. She could see him but felt nothing.

She panicked. "Len," she said, not noticing that she had used his given name. "Len!"

He had closed his eyes and she tried once more to grab his shoulders. They were solid again and she was almost relieved until she noticed his hands. They were like a ghost's. She tried to lace her fingers through his but it was like trying to catch a shadow.

"What's going on?"

"Len!" she shouted, shaking him again.

He opened his eyes groggily. "Am I fading?" he said, putting up a hand so it was close enough to inspect. "I wonder why..."

She tried to hold his hands again. She could hold the left but not the right.

"I think,"—he paused—"we might have interfered..."

She held him close. His gaze was half-lidded, sleepy.

"I'll fix this," she said with finality. "I'll go find Lili and we'll fix this."He nodded and she gently laid his head on a pillow.

Kaho's room wasn't far but she ran so fast she nearly tripped when she opened the door and headed straight for a bedside table. The two photos were there, one on top of the other. The first was of Len's grandparents at the Jazz festival: Ruriko looked the same but Jun was fading. The face Kaho had recognized was hers when she first saw the photo was all but gone. But she felt fine and Jun seemed ok too. It was Len who was affected. In his picture, the one her grandmother had taken, he was as light as a spectre. The Len in real life was fading like the Len in the photo.

She slowly slid to her knees. Len said they had interfered but she didn't want to believe he was right.

_If he's right, then..._

It couldn't be. They didn't do this. They weren't responsible for what was happening.

She had to find a solution. She had to find Lili.

.

.

.

_Music mentioned in this chapter:_

_Dvorak's Romance for Piano and Violin, Op. 11_

_I Only Have Eyes For You _

_Stand By Me – there is a version for two violins + guitar, which was done by Stringspace; it's lovely but pardon the anachronism since the song was recorded in 1960_

_Kaho chooses to play 'Song From Secret Garden' for Len, I thought this would be appropriate since he'd been waiting to hear her version._

_._

_Manga references: _

_Chapter 67_

_Chapter 57: Len treats Kaho's blisters_

_._

_Etc:_

_The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum – It exists. The two underground levels make up the miniature historical theme park which features noodle shops from around Japan._

_._

_We are near the end. Two chapters to go..._


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

It was mid-afternoon and the sun rendered Seisou in the shades of the sepia photographs Kaho had kept. She ran to the back of the music rooms and shouted Lili's name, not caring who would hear. Lili appeared quickly and she showed him Len's photo, hoping he might give her an explanation and tell her what she should do.

"I'm not sure what's happened Hino Kahoko but something's gone wrong..."

"I know Lili. Why is this happening?"

"You interfered with a landmark. You changed something important," he explained briefly. "This picture is the clue. He's disappearing, Hino Kahoko. It's not like he just wasn't there but...eventually even this picture would disappear too." Lili averted his true blue fairy eyes from Kaho's panicked golden ones.

"_It's as if he wasn't alive for it to happen..." _Lili finished.

"No," she said, disbelief clouding her eyes with tears. "How could he not exist?"

Chasing after him would have no meaning...because she wouldn't have met him at all. All the memories she had of Len swam in her eyes as the tears clouded her vision. His frown, his smile, his voice, and _Ave Maria_...

_Everything..._

"He just can't go away," she said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "He doesn't know how much he means to me. I love him. I love him so much!" she cried.

If he disappeared...she would disappear too. The person she knew herself to be would be gone...

"He still exists Hino Kahoko. He's still in this picture, which means you still have time to fix what needs fixing before the checkpoint."

The checkpoint, Lili said, was the appointed time for Kaho and Len to leave. Lili didn't make checkpoints, he just had to follow the rules and wait for the right amount of energy to perform the magic.

"If you don't arrive in time for the checkpoint, you would have to wait again," Lili said. He said he didn't know for how long.

"I broke a rule," Kaho said. "I changed the past."

_Ruriko and Jun_.

If they hadn't been at the train station with Jun, maybe he would have saved Ruriko instead. Kaho imagined that Jun would have gotten Ruriko's bag from the thief, he'd have a hunch about his wallet and check if it was still in his coat, and maybe would have found where the thief had tossed it. He would have noticed that his wallet was missing in time to get his tickets back. He'd attend the Jazz Festival and see Ruriko there and they'd fall in love. Len wouldn't be turning into a ghost and...

"Aren't they meant to meet each other?" Kaho wondered helplessly.

"Maybe it's the timing that matters," Lili said.

She thought of her experience with Len, how drastically different would their story have been if she hadn't heard him play _Ave Maria_? Would they have had other opportunities or was that moment the first domino that tripped all the others and without it there would be nothing but a missed chance?

"No," she said. She wasn't going to lose him. She kept a hand over her forehead as she tried to steady herself and her reeling emotions.

_He's mine and I can't lose him._

"Kahoko..."

She had to make it happen, had to bring Ruriko and Jun together at the Jazz festival. It was the picture of Len's grandparents at the festival that transported Len to the past, so the festival was where she should start. She had completely disappeared in the photo but she felt fine, she felt nothing. Len on the other hand was weak and fading away. And Len's grandfather, who was smiling ridiculously at the camera in the photo, was still healthy in person. His face on the matte photo paper was only starting to fade.

_It only means he wasn't there..._

"I know what I have to do Lili," Kaho said finally. "I know what I have to do."

.

.

With a ghostly hand and its implications to ponder, Len fell into a rare conversational mood. Kaho sat near him on an ottoman as he lay on the couch in his bedroom, blinking back tiredness. He told her about how nervous he was the day he introduced himself to his grandfather when he masqueraded as a distant cousin. He knew he had to avoid being mistaken for crazy but he now suspected that telling the truth probably would have bought him admission to the Tsukimori mansion because his grandfather would have been amused at the story. He smiled then and she nodded sagely when Len concluded that music types were mostly eccentric. He then asked her if she thought he, Len, fit the mold of "weird" musicians. In Kaho's opinion, the title holder for "weird musician" was Shimizu but before she could make this clever (and evasive) reply he followed up with another question: _Did she think herself too normal or too ordinary?_ Then shaking his head, he said, "Do you know, I think no one can hurt me like you can."

Her brows rose. _I hurt you?_ She doubted it on instinct but she couldn't ponder his declaration properly—his rare self-conscious smile was distracting her.

He was speaking casually and not in his usual young-master way. "I think there's a scaffolding in my brain with your name on it. 'Hino Kahoko'," he said, pointing a finger at his temple. He smiled again, a few seconds longer than the first, and she thought she was in danger of kissing him.

"Whatever you do," he continued, his eyes locked with hers, "just fits in that Kahoko-shaped area in my mind that causes me to react in an emotional way. Only you can provoke me so I can't help myself. I have to know how you're doing, have to know you're still pushing forward, or else I wouldn't know how to move on."

He said her name in a way that felt as though he had caressed her cheek. "Do you know what I'm saying? I had it in my head that I would see you again someday, and if that wasn't going to happen...I'd be lost."

"Do you understand?" he asked. There was a plea in his voice for her to respond.

"I think I do," she said quietly. "Tsukimori-kun," she said, gathering her courage, "I'm sorry. That time I...when I said that I was wasting time with music..." She swallowed the lump in her throat and willed herself not to shed tears. "You just felt so far away and I didn't want to think that I couldn't catch up to you. It hurt when you said you were disappointed in me..."

She hadn't known before meeting him that someone could make her want to cry so much and confine herself to bed because of the heartache. If he believed no one had the power to hurt him like she could she would be honest with him too and tell him how he had rejected _her_. But she regretted it after. What she'd done was give an abrupt announcement, as though she kept a grudge against him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I hurt you. I feel guilty for hurting you so often."

She shook her head and wiped away tears, she couldn't have guessed his feelings either. "I didn't think I had any real effect on you. You have your own well-worn area in my brain too—it's the part that makes my heart constrict when I think you've gone and left me. Because I don't want you to go somewhere where I can't reach you because I had let you down and it was my fault that you lost faith in me."

The words she had just spoken had left her in a rush and her body was shaking too.

"I just...I just..."

She just wanted him. She wanted him to love her and to believe in her. She imagined there was a real mapped area in her mind that had impressions she could feel under her fingers and it made sense there that only thoughts of him fit and lingered. He had the ability to hurt her the most but the well-worn area in her brain came to be not because of the second or third time she had cried because of him. It existed because he inspired her and taught her how to reach for her own sound. He had sacrificed for her, supported her and cared for her. He had done these things for her repeatedly—for a second, third and nth time—and each time thoughts of him fell, as if to dovetail, into the same tracks of happiness and content that she could trace.

"I believe in you more than I believe in anyone else," he said. She heard the smile in his voice as his fingers brushed her jaw. She held his hand and pressed her cheek onto his palm.

Still, she had to account for another emotion. He believed in her and saw her as more than she appeared. With him, she felt constantly on the brink of something better—_of something_ _more_.

_I am more_.

She desired this feeling which only he made real.

_We could be more..._

She wanted to hold him until he felt it too. She loved him and she realized she would do so always because he lit up that place in her mind that he himself had made permanent. When it concerned him, there was one definite thing that encompassed her thoughts, actions and reactions: LOVE.

"I love you," they said in unison.

He promised to live for her. She bit her lip and tightened her hold on the hand that was still solid and said she was going to make sure he'd get better so he could keep his promise. She knelt on the floor and kissed him lightly on the lips. He smiled and returned her kiss.

"_Stay with me_, _Len_," she said. She had asked him before to stay by her side and at the time she thought he'd said no because it was inconvenient. But now, no matter what, he had to do it. He had to stay for her—for their future.

He kissed her again. It was a kiss that said they belonged to each other.

"I won't leave you, Kahoko. I won't ever leave you."

.

.

.

_Manga reference:_

_Chapter 67 _

_._

_Author's drabble:_

_With him, it felt as if she was constantly on the brink of something more. She felt as though she was more than she appeared and could have more than she thought to imagine, and she desired this feeling which only he made real._

_- A slight variation of a line I used above. Wouldn't it be nice to feel this way because of someone?_


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

She watched him the entire night; she was on a vigil and couldn't fall asleep. But dawn was breaking and a dream had worked its way into her consciousness. She hadn't drawn the curtains and hadn't felt the sunlight on her skin but when she opened her eyes it was as if she were awakening. When she saw that they were at the beach, she knew that she was dreaming. She was about to relive another vivid memory.

She was walking on the shore like she had done not long ago but was watching his back as he continued to walk, not beside, but ahead of her. She wanted to see his eyes, wanted to look at him...wanted to catch up to him...

When he turned and she saw his face, she felt as if a match had been struck, as if a flame had grown from the glow she had kept hidden inside her. Her ears were more attuned to the waves, as if hearing the ocean could make her taste the salt; her spine tingled and she felt the powdery sand beneath her feet as her lips met his.

"_Ask me anything you want_," he said.

Her fingers felt right laced with his. He had smiled with his eyes.

"_I won't ever leave you_," he answered.

She told herself that he would keep his promises...

"_Don't worry, Kahoko_," he said.

_Don't worry_...

When she awoke, she was in his room and leaning against his couch. He was beside her, sound asleep. She watched his chest rise and fall and a wave of urgency...of wanting to feel him near washed over her.

She can't lose him. She just had to make sure that he was still warm and still with her... She had to feel that he was still present and still real...She saw him shiver.

Jun entered the room, saying something about dinner, and froze when he saw them.

"He looked cold," Kaho said, not waiting for Jun to speak. She released Len from her embrace, fixed her clothes and stood up.

"And you wanted to be his blanket?"

"Maybe it was more for me than for him."

"How am I supposed to believe that you didn't elope when I find you two like that?" Jun complained.

"We didn't," she said softly. "But it's really true that I love him."

"Is he ok?"

"He will be," Kaho replied. "He said he'd meet us at the Jazz Festival later."

Jun looked bewildered. "I don't have tickets," he said. The suddenly, his eyes brightened, "Why? You got new ones?"

"No. We're going to sneak in."

.

.

The Jazz Festival was going to be held in a large convention center; a night market would be in operation in front of it. The tickets, she'd learned, were meant for a fund raiser that would help promote after school music programs. They needed admission for the performances but they could mingle with the crowd that browsed the night market stalls and make their stealthy entrance at the right moment when the guards weren't looking.

Jun heard her plan and didn't agree that they wouldn't be detected. They would be found out and sent home with—he hoped that it was only that—a slap on the wrist.

"Ok, I know I seem the type to break an occasional rule but I don't want security to haul me out of the building," he said as he munched down on his _taiyaki_ and observed the convention center's wide glass doors. "I can just imagine someone grabbing me by the collar, and I don't want that. Since I don't have tickets, and since you convinced me to come here for the food, I suggest you pay more attention to the reason we're here."

"Do you think they're guarding the exit?"

Jun gulped his drink and laughed, "Yeah! Of course..." he trailed off.

Kaho could tell he wasn't sure and led him to an area where, she guessed, a side door would be found. They found one that was unguarded but when they tried the knob, it was locked.

"There's no guard but they didn't leave it open," Jun said, stating the obvious. "And I don't know how to pick locks without destroying the mechanism. I'd ruin the door and people won't be able to exit from this side of the building."

"We can wait for someone to come out and sneak in before they notice," she said, still hopeful, though her insides were beginning to twist with anxiety. _No_, she wasn't going to cry.

Kaho wasn't sure what she had to do to find Ruriko. Jun's future wife and Len's grandmother was supposed to be here or in the general vicinity—_but for how long_? That was another thing to consider. Kaho was sure that if Ruriko had come to the festival she'd be inside watching the performances. _She would have bought tickets, right?_ Kaho remembered the banner in the photo and resisted the urge to check if her memory served her right by checking the reference she had in her pocket. But if she was right, then Ruriko's last name had been printed on the banner, which meant that her family was a sponsor.

_She should be inside!_

"You know, there will be more festivals like this," Jun said. "It was just a shame that I lost my tickets and that they were sold out so soon."

"No," Kaho said, and maybe Jun was puzzled with the feeling she'd injected into her voice, but she was right; he just didn't know it. "There won't be any festival like this one."

_What should happen, anyway? _ Ruriko and Jun had met at the train station and he'd even helped her when they were in Seisou and yet that wasn't enough to secure the Tsukimori lineage. What did she need to do?

_Kamisama, please help us find Ruriko. I have to get them together in time for the checkpoint. I have to get them together before I lose Len._

"What's going on with you?" Jun said. "You're acting like this is life and death we're dealing with...it's just a festival."

His stomach grumbled and he frowned. "I'm going to get more food," he said, walking away.

"Jun!" she shouted.

"Come join me if you like," he said without turning. "I'm not going to wait for something that isn't going to happen."

"What about Len!" she said, unable to stop herself.

"I don't know," Jun answered. "He's probably eating instant ramen right now. If that's the case, his stomach is in better shape than mine. I want more than a few pieces of taiyaki."

He walked to a nearby stall that had tables covered with red checkered tablecloths. The smell of chicken kebabs and roasted vegetables had lured Jun who was on his way to satisfying his hunger. Kaho, worried and uneasy, followed after him.

"Not you two again," Jun said.

Kaho peered from behind Jun's back and saw Ruriko and her two bullies sitting in front of them.

"Well?" he said.

One of the girls raised her eyebrows and got up from her chair. "This isn't fun when you keep coming out of nowhere," she said, eyeing Jun suspiciously. "You're like a bad dream."

Jun glowered at the girl. "That's right," he said. "If you don't leave Ruriko-san alone, I'm going to be your worst nightmare."

The other followed suit and stood up to leave. She shivered. "I'd rather not think about it."

Kaho suspected she was thinking about the time with Lili. When the girls left, she and Jun took the seats the bullies had vacated. Kaho was the first to speak, "I'm glad we got here before they did anything to you."

Her unease reduced at the sight of Ruriko, she thanked _Kamisama_ for answering her prayer.

Ruriko allowed herself a small smile and thanked both Kaho and Jun. "I should learn how to stand up for myself but you two keep popping up to rescue me," she said in an attempt to keep things light. After a pause, she added, "I might still get my chance. I'm not sure they're going to stay away. We met inside the concert hall you know, just awhile ago. They said they were going to treat me."

Kaho had the impression that Ruriko had been forced to leave the Jazz Festival.

"They won't come near you while I'm around," Jun promised.

Kaho tried to read the mood. Ruriko looked lonely and Jun, noticeably concerned, was likely thinking of ways he could cheer her up. It probably went like this when Jun and Ruriko had been alone in the clinic: Ruriko quiet and Jun thinking hard about the right words to say. Kaho excused herself, saying that she would get them drinks.

When she was hidden from their view, she took out Len's photo. Nervously, she turned it over, right side up. She bit her lip. Nothing had changed. His face was still faded. There was a familiar pain in her chest, a sinking feeling.

She leaned against a wall and her ears started to pick at the sounds and noises that created the mood of a festival. She heard the sizzle of the grill, some shuffling of chairs, the chatter of voices, occasional laughter and raucous cheering in the background. What she really wanted was to hear a musical instrument. It was a jazz festival after all, why confine the music indoors?

_A violin_...

Her eyes drifted back to the pair but she found neither Jun nor Ruriko. Their seats were empty. Feeling a shot of alarm, she ran to their table and quickly scanned the crowd. She couldn't see them...there were too many people.

"No," she said. "Where..."

Why would they leave without telling her? She hastily shoved her hand into her pocket...her eyes concentrated on the photo in her hand. There was no change...

_Where did they go? _She was running and shoving people_. Where are they_, she asked again_. _One, two, and then three people bumped into her. She was starting to feel nauseated...

Swallowing hard, she stopped. Just stopped moving and...

"I'm sorry," she said as though to herself, but she'd bumped into something soli?d, or rather, it bumped into her. A cello. It was a cello and the small man carrying it moved very slowly. She repeated her apology, remembering that she had to be polite to her elders. The man didn't react and she couldn't help but be reminded of a certain blond kouhai.

"Um, excuse me," she said before the man could leave. "Are the performances over...at the concert hall, I mean."

He didn't speak but he nodded before going on his way. Facing the direction of the concert hall, Kaho straightened her shoulders and felt as though about to trek a mountain.

She had a hunch Jun and Ruriko would be at the concert hall. _ Maybe something's happened..._She couldn't be sure but she had to check. The audience members were leaving...they were busy going in the opposite direction—to the night market stalls—for food and maybe some games. She countered the flow of their exodus and felt like a fish making her way upstream but she'd managed to squeeze in (amidst some annoyed glances) and found only a few people loitering about at the entrance.

Her feet paced the red carpet. She checked the ladies' room.

No Ruriko.

She headed for the balcony and tried to look for the pair from that vantage point. Still no Ruriko and no Jun.

_They aren't in the concert hall_.

She shut her eyes tight and begged with her heart. She had to find them...She had to save Len. When she opened her eyes, she saw not Ruriko and not Jun but Ruriko's famous bullies talking to a third person, a male student who had probably watched the festival.

"It's a good price isn't it?" one of the girls said.

_So, they're selling something_, Kaho concluded. It looked like a photo.

"Plus, we're going to throw in these too," her accomplice said.

"How did you get these?" their customer said, sounding amazed. He wiped his glasses on his sleeve and held the photos close to his face.

"With ingenuity," the primary negotiator said.

"You seem more interested in those pictures than in the autographed photo."

Kaho couldn't see but she knew the voice that had just spoken—it was Jun. He strode into the scene with Ruriko behind him.

"Hand over her pictures," Jun demanded.

The girls exchanged looks. "Maybe if you hadn't gotten that extra..."

"Don't blame me! She had a lot of photos in that wallet and you know how Matsumoto here has a huge crush on Ichida. I just thought we could capitalize on that..."

"Ichida-san," Matsumoto said nervously, glancing at Ruriko.

"Give back the photos you stole," Jun said. He glowered at Matsumoto who seemed reluctant to let go of the picture in his hand. "You can get another autographed photo when the jazz troupe comes back for the next festival," he said. "Give him back his money," he ordered the bullies.

"You really are a nightmare," girl number one said. "Fine," she said, looking at her partner.

"Here's all of it," number two said. She had pulled the autographed photo from Matsumoto's hand. Both girls hadn't bothered to look guilty while Matsumoto shifted his weight between his feet. He looked uncomfortable and didn't make eye contact.

"I think you should go," Jun said. The girls rolled their eyes and headed for the exit.

"Yeah, I'd better get going too..." Matsumoto said. He pushed his glasses away from the bridge of his nose and sidestepped Jun. "Excuse me, Ichida-san," he said.

Kaho witnessed the entire exchange and had passed the trio on her way to reach Ruriko and Jun.

"Hino-san," Ruriko said, her eyes widening with guilt. "I'm sorry we left you," she apologized.

"It's ok," Kaho said. "I heard all of it."

"When they left," Ruriko started to explain, "I realized they'd taken my souvenir. They went through my wallet a while ago to pay for the food."

"I should have told them to give you back your money too," Jun said. "Jeez, they're hooligans."

Ruriko seemed distressed. "It's ok, really. That was just food."

"I'm sorry," she added.

Kaho, Ruriko and Jun headed back to the stalls quietly. No one was in the mood for conversation and though Kaho had caught Jun glancing sideways at Ruriko, Ruriko kept her eyes averted and her head bent down.

Jun had saved Ruriko more than once but instead of being partial to Jun because of it, Ruriko had only grown more embarrassed...

Kaho didn't know what to do. She wanted Len. She wanted to see him…maybe seeing him would…She had to stop herself from checking his photo. Ruriko and Jun weren't speaking and she wondered what she had to do to find the right approach. She asked herself again what it would take for Ruriko to see Jun the way...

_The way I see Len..._

"I should get us drinks," she said, remembering that she'd lost theirs at around the same time she'd lost her companions a while ago.

She glanced behind her at a stall they had passed and saw a man pulling a chestnut-colored upright in a large cart. He was trying to maneuver the piano around the crowd. With such a heavy load and with so many obstacles to his destination, she knew he must be grumpy. Why he was transporting a piano, one with '_please play me_' painted on the front, made her curious.

"Please play me..." she said, testing the words with her mouth.

The idea came in a flash. Excitement followed it. Kaho snuck a peek at the quiet to-be couple beside her; she thought of her plan and held it in her mind like a fragile glass orb . So, Jun could be Ruriko's protector...But maybe what Ruriko wanted was...

_Inspiration_...

She elbowed Jun and pointed to the piano, motioning towards Ruriko.

"Please play me, huh?" Jun said, intrigued. He smiled at Ruriko. "Ha, why not?"

Taking Ruriko's hand, Jun went to the man with the piano. He jumped over the cart's wooden frame to get access to the upright. He cracked his knuckles...

Kaho stood beside a confused-looking Ruriko. She squeezed her hand. "He's really good. You'll love it."

She prayed that this was the moment she had been—no, they had been—waiting for. Love for music had connected her and Len and maybe this was also true for his grandparents. Jun didn't know it but all her hopes were in his piece.

_Chopin's Revolutionary Etude..._

"Hey kid, what are you doing?" said the large man who'd been tasked with the piano's care.

Jun's piece had started with the recognizable classical rendition and then, without warning, it morphed: the sound became more playful. Jun had a flair for improvisation and his free, cheeky style attracted listeners. They started to clap and cheer.

The man scratched his head, probably caught between wanting to make Jun stop and the other option— dragging the piano while Jun played.

_That is if, I'm right and the piano is for publicity..._

Kaho tapped the man on the shoulder. "Sir, I know we're in the middle of everything but please let him play for a while. This is for publicity right? I mean, the piano does say 'please play me'. You can tell the crowd to follow you after for more performances."

If a show was needed, she was going to enlist Jun for it, if only to give him more time to play for Ruriko.

"Ok," the man sighed, "only if he agrees to play at the stall. This piano was meant to attract attention anyway. My boss wanted the musicians from the Jazz Festival to notice the piano and draw more customers by playing it. He won't mind at all."

After his performance, Jun bowed to his audience and winked at Ruriko. He jumped from the cart and smiled at his girl. At least, Kaho hoped Ruriko already was. To her surprise, Ruriko left her side and went to Jun.

_She's going to meet him in the middle..._

"You're amazing," Ruriko said. Her eyes were brighter than they had been before Jun's performance.

Anticipation bubbled inside of Kaho. For the first time, Ruriko was smiling. She was really smiling.

Kaho watched as Jun tried to hide his excitement, neither of them had seen this side of Ruriko. She joined the pair and made her pitch to Jun, "If you want, you can play at the stall where they're going to house this piano."

She added, "I'm sure Ruriko-san would like to listen to another piece."

Ruriko probably had a host of secret admirers, Kaho thought. Her face when she smiled could make even a statue sigh dreamily.

"I'd like for you to hear me play too. Jazz is my favourite," Ruriko said.

"Wow," said Jun. "I mean, ok. You like jazz?"

_She just told you it's her favorite_, Kaho chuckled.

"I did Grieg in Jazz once," Ruriko said, not minding Jun's clumsy reply.

"Really, what piece?" Jun asked, interested.

"_Anitra's dance_," Ruriko answered.

Jun and Ruriko paired up, following behind the man with the piano who was leading them to the stall which would be the piano's home. Before they could notice she was missing, Kaho hid herself in the crowd. Just ahead, Jun and Ruriko were stopped by a girl with a camera.

_They're on their way_, Kaho thought as the duo talked animatedly.

She was more than pleased with herself. She brought out the photos in her pocket and saw that everyone's faces were distinct, not faded. She checked Len's photo too and in it his face was just as it should be.

She had accomplished her mission.

"I did it Len," she said to herself, wiping tears from her eyes. "I did it."

She was a crybaby, she thought. But that wasn't important, she had to go to Seisou and meet Len. He was alive and they were going home.

.

.

Kaho found Len on Seisou's rooftop, watching a dark sky lit with fireworks. The crowd at the festival must be watching too but she couldn't pay attention to the colorful lights. In her heart, Len stood in the foreground and the sky only framed him.

"Tsukimori-kun?" She said as she closed the distance between them. He was smiling when he turned to face her.

"Did you get to say your goodbyes to my grandparents?"

"I wanted to," she said. "But they were busy."

She showed him the photo of his grandfather and grandmother at the festival. "So, I'm going to live aren't I?" he said.

"You are," she said. "Look..."

She took out the other photo, the one that had been her timer as she raced to make sure Jun and Ruriko live their connection for the sake of their descendants.

Len examined it, smiling wistfully. "We're going back, aren't we?"

She nodded. "We are."

"Hino, can I ask you something?" He said, lifting his gaze from his picture and looking directly into her eyes.

"Yes?" she said. He looked serious but she had no idea what he was going to ask.

"When I was near...I mean, before I drifted off, you said something about me being disappointed in you. I know I wasn't feeling my best but..." He trailed off, and then breathed in.

"I understood everything you said and I was a little confused. I don't remember it— I don't remember you telling me that you felt as if you were wasting your time with music."

She was silent and very still. She would have to tell him after all. This mattered and she had to tell him. He had broken her heart but she knew now that she might have broken his as well.

"It happened the first time you visited Japan after leaving for Vienna. You came with your friends from abroad and you played in this really big concert hall. And you were so..."

She was fighting the tears. "You were so amazing and I was so...the opposite, and I didn't think I could ever match up."

He held her shoulders then as if to steady her. "Len, I'm sorry. I was being sad and pathetic."

"Len, I...I'm sorry," she repeated. "When I ended up here and I realized you didn't know you were angry at me because our reunion hadn't happened yet, at least not to you, and you were apologizing for not telling me when you were leaving, I just couldn't tell you. I didn't want you to be angry at me anymore."

She was crying again and she wiped the moisture from her eyes to see him more clearly. When her eyes got back their focus, she was surprised at the look of affection on his face. His eyes were so soft and it felt lovely, so lovely, to receive such a tender look.

"Don't worry now," he said, holding her close as he stroked her hair. "It's not going to happen anymore."

He held her in his arms so she was facing the sky, but she wanted more of his eyes, his nose, his lips and sum total of it that made up the loving gaze he had given her, so she moved her head backwards until she was only inches away from his face. He smiled at her and said, "I think I would have reacted that way. As melodramatic as it sounds, I would have felt like you had abandoned me." He sighed, closing his eyes briefly, "I have faith in you. I love you and if you tell me now that you're giving up on music I'd be just as mad. Because the person I was then is the same person I am now—I love you, no matter where or when."

_He loves me_..._and loved me even before..._

She flicked her eyes at his lips. She wanted to kiss him. "You do?"

"I do," he said, moving a little closer so that their noses touched.

She tipped her head to the side, taking in his face and the light in his eyes. She hadn't realized that she had been waiting for moments like this.

"I love you," she confessed again."I love you as you are, I love your awkwardness, your strictness, even the slightly surprised expression you give me when I ask you for too much... I know back then that I didn't realize what it meant to ask you those things... to ask you to be part of my life... but I'm telling you now, OK. I love you, I love everything about you, your faults, your strengths, everything. And that's how much you mean to me, you mean everything. "

"Me too. I love you too. No one is more important to me. I've been this way, I think, striving hard all the time, because I would meet you someday. "

"Really?" she said. She wasn't about to disagree but it sounded too good to be true.

"I've never been more sure of anything else in my life. Music to me, means you."

"I think that sounds unfair to music…" she observed, a bit embarrassed. It was too much to hear him compare her to his life's passion.

"No, it's not. She has you. And I have you because of her. That is what I meant."

"Do you know," he said, holding her face in his hands so he could see it clearly. "Do you know I feel like everything's going to be all right. I feel good about what will happen. I feel like I caught glimpses of our future. "

_Another reason_, she said to herself, smiling with all the joy he'd given her. She loved that he believed.

"We'll play music together, we'll go to concerts and we'll have picnics on the beach." She paused, looking at him meaningfully, "And you'll kiss me too."

"We'll have more time for all of that someday."

Still, she had to try before they were separated. "We have enough time for the last one."

"I think we do," he agreed.

She smiled broadly as they sealed their shared hopes and dreams.

.

.

.

_Music:_

_Chopin's Revolutionary Etude – the version Jun plays is from Youtube: 'Chopin Etude 10, Op. 12 (jazz version)'; in the anime, Tsuchiura plays Revolutionary for the third selection._

_Anitra's dance by Grieg – the jazz version that Ruriko talks about is this one: 'Chopin and Grieg in Ragtime (by Morten Gunnar Larsen)'. Again, the video is on Youtube. Anitra's dance starts at 2:33 secs._


	16. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

When she arrived, she didn't land on the floor of a dusty attic. Instead, her fall was cushioned by a soft mattress in a bright room. It was morning and she loved mornings, loved the panels of light that came in through her bedroom window, because, she was—and she was very sure about this—in her bedroom. She opened her closet—her second year Gen Ed uniform was in its usual spot and all the dresses she had worn to the concours were arranged in chronological order. She was back, she was home, and she was going to become a third year student very soon. Anticipation of this future filled her head as she went downstairs and greeted her mother.

"Kahoko," Mrs. Hino said, "why aren't you in uniform?"

"Eh?"

"It's Friday dear. If you don't change now, you're going to be late."

"Eh?!"

Kaho scrambled to her room, showered, changed, brushed her hair and grabbed her bag. She slid down the banister (something she wished she had done at the Tsukimoris') and walked out the door. She'd gone back a day before…

_And Lili said that it was give or take a few hours so…_

_A day before…_

_This means…_

It was the day of Len's arrival. She stopped in her tracks and placed a hand on her chest. That hand went to her lips.

_Len_, she thought. _Her Len_. The Len she had just kissed. "_My Len_," she said, testing his name.

"Len," she said aloud. She'd already opened the gate and was on the street. She had just kissed him…what, less than an hour ago? And now she was going to see him again. She had no idea she could be so happy until…

"Len?" she said. Saying a person's name aloud couldn't make them magically appear in front of you…but there he was. He was leaning against...It was a silver blue Chevrolet. One of the cars they'd seen in 1958…

"You're back from Vienna," she said. She recognized his shirt as the same one he had worn during…

_Well…during that day…this day. The day of his arrival._

He smiled. "I am," he answered. "So, how is this going to happen?"

"I…well…I…" she stammered.

"We haven't seen each other for a long time."

For him, that was true. "Those were your words exactly," she said.

"And, I hope, I won't be saying the same to you about your reply."

"Oh no. I'd never…that is…I wouldn't."

It wasn't going to be like the last time. In fact, that 'last time' was already lost—as if it had never happened. _This_ was their new reunion.

"How are you?" he said, closing the distance between them.

"Fine. And you?" She hadn't moved. She knew they had been separated by months in his calendar but, for her, it had been less than an hour.

"I'm doing ok," he replied. "I came to pick you up. I wanted to ask if we could have lunch later too…I was thinking we could drive somewhere."

"Eh?"

"We have enough time. I brought a car."

She guessed that that was what he'd planned to do. _He's going to drive me to school, isn't he?_

"You learned how to drive," she said, still in awe.

"Yes. I remembered our conversation and if you still want to, I can drive you to Seisou...and other places too."

She had to ask. "And the car?"

"A Chevrolet. My grandfather's actually. Borrowed just for today."

"It looks like the one we saw…"

"I think it's the exact model."

"Who knew," she said. "It's a really flashy car, though." She thought that maybe he didn't want to attract too much attention on his first day back from Vienna.

"I know, but it had to be this car."

"Ah…" _Monosyllables again, Kaho?_ What had happened to him that she didn't know about? All that time they were apart, she wanted to know if he'd been thinking of her.

"This feels like fate," she said.

"Yes, it is," he said, taking her hand.

"Kahoko," he said, "I'm back. Like I said, you can ask me anything."

"Do you still love me?" she blurted. "You know I…"

She had just kissed him barely an hour ago.

He held her close and touched her hair. "I have to tell you," he said. "You can believe in me too, right?"

He cupped her face. "I love you. And I've been waiting longer than you have."

"That's true," she replied. "I've never told you but, do you know…I love your eyes. They're so beautiful…golden and clear."

"I love your voice," he replied. "It's kind and gentle."

"Len," she began, "will you run away with me?"

"Huh?"

"You have your grandfather's car from 1958. We're both sixteen. We should run away."

He laughed and shook his head. "According to my grandfather…"

"Right, you _will _be the one to convince me," he said.

"You said I could ask for anything…" She trailed off. Her shoulders were starting to shake, she tried but she couldn't stop from giggling.

"My grandfather would be amused."

She laughed and he joined in her laughter. "I love you, Len Tsukimori."

"Then will you come with me later? We can still run away."

"Where to?"

"To 1958. To the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum."

"It'll be so nostalgic."

He tucked her hair behind her ear. "And maybe after school, we can drive around town?"

She couldn't stop smiling. "Ok."

"We'll go the beach, the park, what do you say?"

"Will it be like this…with you?"

"Hasn't it always been?"

_Past. Present. And Future_.

"Yes," she answered confidently.

_Yes._

.

.

.

_Fin_

_._

_It's the end of an era for me. I will always love Kaho and Len. They are my favorite couple. There are no words, really. I hope, dear ff-netizens, that the person you love (wherever he is- if he's already in your life or if the day you meet is still pending and you don't know where under the sky he's been placed) inspires and challenges you._

_Here's to you and yours!_

_-Leigh_


End file.
